Page 49 of Unveil

I snort. “I don’t think I’ve ever been called that before. That’s usually reserved for Hatch.”

“Yeah, well Hatch didn’t kidnap me, nearly kill my family twice,orinsist I marry him, a complete stranger. So, you know, just going by sheer facts on this one.”

I laugh.Laugh. Last night was the first time I’d even smiled, let alone laughed, since I can remember, and I haven’t shaken this goofy grin since my little tyrant woke up.

It feels… good. Lighter behind my ribcage where I’ve been heavy for years. Momma would’ve loved her for that alone.

My heart jolts painfully.Fuck. It’s usually easier to not think about it, but I don’t know, Luna makes me feel all types of things. Shit I’d hoped I’d buried.

I swallow past the hurt in my chest and drop the tracker into the plastic bag from the last barbecue we had on Fury land. Which was… ages ago. My cousins are old enough that they don’t even need the arm swimmies anymore.

After sighing at that depressing thought, I inhale and begin filling up the airless plastic float.

“What’re you doing?”

“Blowing up this here swimmy.” I hold it up before I blow another lungful into it.

She huffs and leans back against the SUV with athunk, looking around the forest behind me. Then she fixes her gaze on me again.

“Why do you call your own dad ‘King’?”

I speak through puffs. “It’s how we identify the branches of our families. Just easier to call him that when we use it all the time anyway.”

“You call your mom Queenie too?”

Call. Present tense.

Guess she doesn’t know.

I look toward the trees. “Nope. Just Momma.”

There’s a beat, then she asks again. “So you’re the King branch?”

“Inquisitive little bird, aren’t you?”

She grins proudly. “Am I getting on your nerves?”

“Nope.” I pop the ‘p’, taking pleasure in her fresh scowl, then answer. “We go by patriarchs and matriarchs as heads of families here. There’s lots of Fury kin. Good, bad, ugly?—”

“You’re the ugly ones, then, huh?”

Giving more breaths into the plastic floatie, I give her a once-over before saying, “Didn’t think I was too ugly last night, did you?”

She smirks. “Only because you were wearing a mask. Now that I see you in all your ‘glory,’ I know exactly what kind of Fury you are.”

I fill up the rest of the floatie then stuff it inside the bag before dropping it to the ground.

“Is that so?” Standing to my full height, I stalk toward her. “Because there’s another kind of Fury. The dangerous ones. The ones who will doanythingto protect what’s theirs.”

She swallows, and some deep part of me craves the flash of fear in her eyes as she backs into the SUV.

“So let me ask, after last night… which one do youreallythink I am?”

And another part of me craves the rest of her reaction as the fear disappears quickly and defiance takes its place.

“The only thing Ireallythink is that you need to take me back right now, because I don’t want anything to do with you and I…” she drifts off as I close in around her. “…w-won’t… marry…”

Leaning around her, I rest my hands on the roof rack as I cage her in, taking over every angle of her vision. Her breath hitches, her skin flushing down to her rounded tits.