and mysteries swirling around her, Uriah was steady and open about his feelings for her.
That sensation of being stopped up and clogged with all the murky thoughts and feelings drained away. Her mate's love a veritable plunger that forced everything else aside but how he made her feel.
“Yes,” she managed to whisper. “Uriah?”
He pulled his hand down the tail of her braid, and somehow, she knew he'd been the one to plait the long tresses together for her. “Hmm?”
“Thank you for taking such good care of me.”
Her entire body vibrated with the happy rumble he gave in answer. “Always, honey.”
CHAPTER TEN
The clock on the bedside table said it was six-twenty in the morning. The sun wouldn't rise for another few minutes, everything was quiet, but his instincts were screaming at him that something was wrong.
It only took him a fraction of a second to realize Ivy wasn't curled up in his arms, and fear flooded him like a tsunami.
Uriah jerked upright, throwing the blankets back as he looked wildly around the room, hissing out a breath when he saw her standing by the picture window.
She'd asked him to leave the salt lamp on, and in its glow, he saw she had on one of his shirts. She hugged herself, her hands slowly rubbing up and down on her biceps like she was cold or frightened.
The sound of the blankets being thrown back got her attention, and she turned to him, an apologetic smile tugging at her lips. “Did I wake you?”
“What's wrong?”
“Nothing,” Ivy answered calmly, but her posture and her scent told him something was definitely wrong. He got up immediately and crossed the distance between them, pulling her away from the window with one arm while he used his bear's eyes to peer out into the shadows.
“Did you see someone? Feel something? If you did, honey, it's okay. Don't discredit your instincts, especially right now.”
Ivy snuggled into his embrace, rubbing her cheek over his chest. “So far, the only instinct of mine that's been right was the one that told me to hear you out on the first day you brought me here.”
The instinct that told her he was indeed her mate. What a stroke to his ego. “I'm glad you listened to that one.”
Her lips curled in a smile against his skin, but she remained mute on whatever had pulled her out of bed in the wee hours. Cuddling her close, he dropped a kiss on her head and urged her to tip her head back to look at him by gently tugging on her hair.
Soft, pearly light shimmered across her brow, the first blush of morning reflecting in her clear green eyes. His heart clenched with disbelief that anyone could be so beautiful. Maybe it was the fairy blood coursing through her veins that made her so damn captivating.
He could have watched her for hours, days, and never tire of it. His hands were huge and rough, too rough to be touching such soft skin, but she turned her face into his palm with a sigh, her long lashes fluttering with pleasure at the scrape of his callused thumb across her cheek.
He wondered if this feeling of awe would ever fade. He hoped to hell it wouldn't, and every morning he woke up with her, this overwhelming sense of love and disbelief that she was his would wash over him, warm and steady, like the sun.
“Tell me what you feel, Ivy. Even if it turns out to be nothing, tell me.”
A shadow passed over her expression, but there was trust in her gaze, which was every bit as important to him as having her love. “It's hard to describe.”
“I got plenty of time, honey.”
She raked her bottom lip through her teeth, shooting a quick glance out the window, not able to hide the shiver that worked through her. “I spent so much of my life cut off from my magic; I'm not sure what things are supposed to feel like. When I spread all the wildflower seeds yesterday, it felt like tiny little pebbles being thrown into a pond. I could feel the soil, sense the water flowing deep underground, the skitter of squirrels up the tree trunks. Everything, you know?”
Uriah nodded to silently say he was keeping up, and she continued, her speech speeding up as she unknowingly tried to convey to him that she wasn't making it up. As if he would have ever thought she would lie.
“I thought I felt something when we sat