The scent of cold ash stains its threads.
It stains me.
What in the fucking Goddess Moon’s name am I doing here? An adventure? I thought this shit was going to be an adventure? A fucking purpose?
I was wrong.
I was so damn wrong it’s insulting how easily I walked away from a good family. A kind man. And a safe pack who never truly knew me.
The sound of hinges whining doesn’t catch my attention. The heavy fall of footsteps clumping over dark hardwood floors doesn’t so much as scratch at the back of my messy thoughts. His warm hand gently pressing to my collarbone, along the fine flesh there, that’s what draws me to the serious eyes that hold…concern?
Could Zilo dare to be concerned when he has so much asshole-iness to attend to?
“Why are you awake?” That gravelly tone of his is warm instead of gruff. It’s a delicious melody that washes over my body and floods out the anxiety in my mind.
Almost…
“Did you do it?” My gaze narrows up at him as I hold myself harder.
“Do what?”
I swallow stiffly and try to make it simple for this fucker to understand. “Did. You. Punish. Him?” My eyebrow arches so high it’s painful.
I wait patiently, but passive-aggressively, for his reply.
He doesn’t even blink. “Yes.”
Of course he fucking did!
I’m on my feet and right in his personal space, storming even closer so fast he barely backsteps every step I take. Until there are no more. And he’s pinned right up against the wall. And I don’t hesitate to keep going. On the tips of my toes and with my chin held high, I meet his gaze with just a breadth of space separating my lips from his.
“How can you call yourself a pack and harm him day in and day out? How the fuck can you live with yourself? How has no one plotted your death along with the Prince’s?” My jaw hurts from how tightly I snap it closed, and somewhere between us, my index finger found a bit of hard muscle, and I suppose I’ve been poking his stone wall chest with every word I’ve said.
I honestly have no idea other than the fact that my finger kind of hurts now.
And that alone should tell me to back down from this deadly hellhound of a man.
It’s just too bad that that logic hasn’t caught up with my rage yet.
“Cersia,” he whispers calmly, “do not finger fuck my chest again.” His jaw, like my own, twitches with a hidden hinting aggression. It’s a warning sign like wolves’ hair lifting from the back of their neck just before they strike.
Fuck his aggression.
My arm rears back, and all the shaking emotional anger I’ve held onto for the past several hours storms forward with the tiniest little poke that holds so much meaning.
And that’s all it takes.
All that composure Zilo holds on to when I’m around comes crashing down as his arms grip around me, his chest collides with my body, and he spins me so fast the entire room is a blur of darkness. Until my cheek cracks against the smooth wall, and his chest presses down against my back. My hands are held tightly from behind in one of his big paws. A knee comes up high, and he separates my stance with a quick shove of his thigh between my legs. Steady fingers slide through my hair, and he tilts my head just the way he wants so his gaze is in my peripheral.
“You’re entirely too reckless for someone who can’t even manage her own beast within herself. Are you going to calm your little ass down now?” His voice is so mellow and at ease it just pisses me off how much harder I’m breathing.
“Fuck you and your obsession with my ass.” I literally spit at him. Of course, my retaliation spittle just falls against my own shoulder, but it feels good to do it anyway.
His grip against my hair as well as my wrists tightens, and he pulls my head back against him while crushing my hips into the wall. My mouth falls open from how hard he’s angling my throat. The rough brush of his beard skims along my jawline.
“If your attitude threatens our plans, I won’t ask the others for advice. I’ll kill you to save ourselves. I won’t hesitate.”
I barely move against his hold, but ever so slightly I twist my wrists, adjusting just subtly and just enough to rock the curve of my ass against the most