When He Lost Me, I Took His Lycan Brother

Chapter 3

I stood with my back pressed to the inside of the door, my breath dead silent.

When I drink, I sleep like the dead. Kael knew that. That's why he and his pack of jackals had spoken so freely.

But tonight,tonight, of all nights,I'd jerked awake from a nightmare just in time.

Just in time to hear every word.

And in that single, suspended moment, the beautiful dream I'd been living,Alpha Kael, my devoted, adoring Alpha,shattered like the goblet on the floor.

But I didn't throw the door open. I didn't scream. I didn't fall to my knees and weep.

If he could lose me at cards like a trophy, then I was less than nothing to him.

If I made a scene, if I humiliated him in front of his men,these aristocrats, these high-blooded sons of the Lycan line,they would crush me the way you crush an ant under a thumb.

Numbly, I crossed back to the bed and lay down. I pulled the heavy fur coverlet over my body. I was still shaking, still freezing, like the cold had moved into my bones.

Then the door opened.

I heard a man's footsteps cross the room toward the bed.

A scent came with him. Faint, clean, glacial,like pinewood dusted with frost.

A scent I had never smelled before.

Kael never smelled like this.

I closed my eyes. I curled my hand into a fist.

The coverlet was lifted away with surprising gentleness. Then strong arms,terribly strong,lifted me bodily off the mattress.

"Seraphina. Let's go home and sleep."

His voice was lower than Kael's. Lower, and richer, the kind of voice that softens the marrow in your bones.

I gave him no sign that anything was wrong.

I opened my eyes and looped my arms around his neck, going soft and pliant against him like a kitten that had been waiting for him. "Alpha Kael… darling Alpha Kael… what took you so long?"

His body went rigid for a half-second.

When he spoke again, his voice was lower still.

"Did you wait long?"

"Mmm… my head hurts."

"I'll have the Pack doctor send something for the hangover."

He carried me out the door, his arm beneath my knees, his other arm cradling my back. His grip was iron. His stride was steady.

I pressed my face against the granite of his chest and let that cold pinewood scent fill my lungs.

"My Goddess, you smell wonderful tonight."

"Do I?"

"Mmm. Better than I've ever known you to smell."

"You like it?"

"I love it."

His footsteps paused for a single beat.

We were walking the long stone corridor between the lodges, lit only by torches set in iron brackets. The hallway was empty. Only our two shadows danced along the wall.

He bent his head. A kiss, very light, brushed the corner of my mouth.

"Good. Then keep loving it."