Page 20 of Let It Snow (Eden’s Omegaverse #7)

Behind me I hear Lake cry out, thinking I’m trying to kill myself. It’s true the drop is steep, maybe fifty feet, but he doesn’t know everything about my power. I land softly on the ground and take off running through the garden toward the lake.

One small thing is comforting, someone dressed me while I was out. I’m wearing sweatpants and a T-shirt. At least I’m not sprinting half-naked across the lawn.

I make it to the beach and only then stop. Feeling like an overly hormonal teen, or like in a pre-heat phase, I drop onto the sand, curl up with my arms around my knees, and start to cry.

Yeah, cry. I haven’t in ages, but it just breaks out of me, spilling over, every bit of misery my life has turned into.

Maybe I’m irrational, but I’m overcome with this strange sense of humiliation.

I don’t want to be like this, like some wild, unstable creature trapped in a cage of pain, stuck inside this memory block. Robbed of my identity. I want out!

I hear footsteps coming from the house.

Of course, it can only be him. Snow.

The last thing I want is for him to see me like this, falling apart like a moody kid.

When I finally lift my tear-streaked face, I catch some flicker across his features, but I can’t read it. I don’t know if my suffering stirs anything in him or not. That dull, constant ache locked inside me makes even simple interactions hard.

Snow kneels down slowly beside me in the sand. His calm face looks strangely gentle as he watches me. Then he says quietly,

"I’m sorry I didn’t warn you. But it couldn’t be avoided anyway. The second touch will be different."

I almost laugh, but what comes out is a broken sound, half snort, half choke.

"I promise. The surge was only at the start. Now there’s nothing to be afraid of."

Maybe I’m a fool, but something in me believes him.

My wild side surges, takes over, and I fix him with my gaze. Suddenly, a pitiful sound escapes me, and then I throw myself at him…

I slam into him full force.

He’d been kneeling, but now he falls back, sitting in the sand on his ass, and I crash against his chest, straddling his hips.

The feeling that hits me is indescribable. Snow’s scent: heather, tempting, tugs at my senses like a bow across violin strings, pulling a sound from me I can’t contain. A very meaningful sound in AO mating language. A demand to bite!

That’s crazy! We’re not in a relationship!

My emotions explode, punching straight through the block I’ve been trapped in.

A wave of pure feralness takes me. And I don’t wait for his answer.

My mating fangs slide out, and I growl low, frenzied, hungry—

The next second, I sink my teeth into his neck…

Fate! I never thought I’d do something like that. Not in my wildest dreams.

Snow’s body jerks, and mine shudders with it. It’s divine and shocking all at once. I recognize what I’ve done: I’ve bitten his gland without permission, without asking, without any established bond between us to justify it. A violation.

And yet, I feel something ripple through him, answering my shock. He trembles, too. Then I realize what’s happening. A wetness spreads across my pants… and his.

What the hell?

We both came…

Madness. Impossible. It’s strange and terrifying and blissful all at once. What’s happening to us?

I tear my teeth free from his gland and stare at him.

But I’m not finished.

I grab his face in my hands.

His eyes burn faintly with a violet glow. His breath comes quick, his lips parted. He looks beautiful, white strands falling around his face. I have this absurd thought: he has to be mine.

Mine!

That’s exactly the kind of man I want, hot, sexy, magical. Sorcerer. Mysterious.

Then, the next shock: the pain is gone. With his body against mine, every bit of ache vanishes.

He was right, after all. The fog in my mind clears too, the suffocating weight of it lifting.

It’s almost euphoric.

My amnesia is… gone.

Freedom!

I burst out laughing and shake his face lightly between my hands.

"I could kill you, you know?" I laugh like a maniac.

"In a second, I could turn you into dust, shatter every cell of your body into a billion red drops! And maybe I should, because you’re another sorcerer.

" I tilt my head. "I heard once that in the oceans our ancestors lived in, sorcerers killed each other endlessly, fighting for power, wiping out rivals to become the strongest."

Since my memory is back in full, I remember everything. The books, the articles, the legends about our kind. I remember who I am.

Snow looks at me in some strange mix of awe, amusement, maybe also euphoria. That’s his reaction to my madness?

His lips curve into a smile.

I pout. "Snow, don’t laugh! I’m not who you think I am. You don’t know anything about me. I’m a shapeshifter; what you’re seeing isn’t the real me."

He’s quiet for a while. But the subtle smile at the corner of his mouth just doesn’t want to disappear, and his gaze drops to my lips.

He tilts his head slightly and whispers so quietly it's like a gust of wind from afar. "Good. That’s not my real form either."

And then, without hesitating, he leans in, and his mouth catches mine.

I freeze in shock.

No one has ever kissed me before.

This is my first kiss. I know that now.

What happened with Anzo never involved kissing. I realize too that in some ways, I’m still a kind of virgin, if that’s even possible.

Anzo never penetrated me.

He forced me… to penetrate him. Yes, that way around. Unreal.

So this kiss… it’s a whole new part of my reality.

The soft touch of his mouth against mine.

I sink into it, part my lips, and let him in.

I let myself float away for a moment, think of nothing but this feeling, sweet, sensual, exciting all at once.

Snow tastes fresh, like mint. I dive into pleasure…

His hands slide down my back, soothing and thrilling at the same time.

Dear Fate, it feels so good.

But no. I can’t lose myself in this, not now. There are things I need to know.

"How do you do it? How did you take away the pain? The block, the fog in my mind?"

Oh, Fate! How wonderful it is to speak without pain. No pushing out the words anymore. They just flow.

"Not forever. When you pull away, it’ll return."

"It’ll come back?" I ask, almost disappointedly.

"Yes. To heal it fully would take more than a touch. It would require something… deeper."

He doesn’t explain how deep. And I don’t ask. Something in me is already too stirred, too fired up. I’m not ready to face that yet.

"Snow, I have so much power I could kill every human within a mile, level the streets and the houses and the trees, turn it all to rubble. But I can’t destroy the mental block in my own mind. And you… you lift it with just a touch?"

He tilts his head slightly, almost playfully.

"My power is nothing like yours."

"How did you make all those glowing fish, the tiny butterflies?"

He gives me a small smile.

"More important: did you like them?"

"Yes. Though for a second I thought I was losing my mind."

Snow smiles, slowly raises his hand, and holds it flat in the air, as if offering me something on his palm.

Suddenly, something blooms there, at first resembling a tiny flower made of pure, golden light.

But then I see what form it takes. A tiny, glowing dragon.

Its wings are beautiful, not quite dragon-like, more like fairy wings, delicate and radiant with light.

I stare at it, fascinated.

The dragon moves across Snow’s hand, and without thinking, I lift my own hand. The dragon hops onto it. It exhales tiny ‘puffs’ of light, like little glowing clouds. It seems almost real, alive, and so beautiful.

"That butterfly you held on your hand on the porch… was that made by you too?"

Snow nods.

I look at the glowing dragon for a while, and then, I don’t even know why, I slowly close my hand around it… I feel this urge to absorb it, to… devour it. I know it’s absurd, but I can’t stop myself.

When I open my hand again, the dragon is gone.

All that’s left is a shimmering dust that floats in the air like it’s caught in bursts of wind…

It swirls, coloring itself in all the shades of the rainbow, flying up into the sky above us.

"Wow…" I murmur, but then my eyes drift back to Snow’s face, studying him for a moment.

His gaze lowers to my mouth.

Slowly, he leans toward me, and the very surface of our lips brushes lightly, fleetingly.

Then, I remember something very… stressful.

I frown. The question slips out of me before I can stop it.

"Did you see what I’ve got in the bathroom?"

I see a wide grin spread across his face. He tilts his head and raises his eyebrows.

"You mean the dildo? Sure. What about it?"

I open my mouth to answer, but just then I hear footsteps from the house. I look up to see Lake and Aiden coming toward us.

Abashed, I quickly slide off Snow’s hips.

The moment I lose contact with him, a familiar wave of heaviness hits me.

The fog drops over my mind like a thick curtain. The details I had clear a second ago blur out. A groan escapes my throat as that dull, low pain flares through every cell in my body.

Everything I knew, the past I just remembered, shades over again in gray. I let out a frustrated squeal.

"Summer," Lake calls, quickening his pace as he comes up and drops to his knees beside me.

A rush of shame hits me when I realize the air smells of my cum and Snow’s.

I catch the exact moment Lake notices. He blinks, then asks, "You okay? We were worried about you."

I shake my head a little, then force myself through the painful haze. There it is again, this damn difficulty with words, my curse.

"I’m okay. I’m sorry about the outburst."

"Honey, you don’t have to apologize. After what you’ve been through, it’s a miracle you’re coping as well as you are."

Lake’s endless kindness and patience only make me feel more ungrateful.

"I already called off the doctor. Sorry we brought him without your consent, but we were really worried, especially after what we saw in the garden."