protecting family and friends, I knew that had to be close to impossible.
“Father knew he’d die at Rainford’s hands,” Todd informed me, his tone soft, his words quiet. “But he didn’t stop it. Did nothing to prevent it.”
“Why? How did he know?”
“Because he just did. He was good at reading people. Kingsley Rainford treated my entire family like we were slaves. But, equally, the only person who could take him down in the pack was me—after my father had died and I’d transcended.”
Words like transcended and ascended were getting to be a part of my vocabulary now, so I barely batted an eye as I understood he meant the kumiho spirit had passed into him with his father’s death.
I bit my lip. “I’m sorry, Todd.”
“Don’t be,” he said gruffly. “We all die at some point. We’re just lucky if our death comes with a purpose. If we had left the pack, if Father abandoned his fate, then we wouldn’t be here now, would we? You wouldn’t be the Moon Child.”
He said that, but I knew he was torn up about it because if he wasn’t, he’d have left Daniel alone.
“Why was it so important that Daniel be sent away?” Now I knew him better, now I knew a lot of things better, I realized there was a reason for everything.
“Remember what I just told you not to do?” I blinked at that, then nodded when he repeated, “You can’t control the future?”
“Yeah, I remember.”
“That was me. Trying to control the future.” He cleared his throat. “No good will come of Daniel remaining with the Highbanks.”
“Do you know why?”
“No. But I know you’re the Moon Child, which is a catalyst.”
“For what?”
“The birth of the Sun Child.”
“What will they do?”
“Change society forever.”
“Oh, not much, then?” I teased gently, resting my hand on his chest, and finding myself surprised by the pounding of his heart.
Infinite knowledge was a burden, but it spoke to me of this man, told me of his goodness, his wrongdoings. It told me of his strengths and his weaknesses.
He didn’t want to be pack alpha.
But he knew there was no one good enough for the job.
He was holding it…holding it for our child.
Crazy how only a few days had passed since I’d first met him, and already, I could think these things without wanting to puke.
Just being in the same room as him had been too much. Going to a diner had been an attempt at proving to him that we were wrong for each other, that he was wrong about who I was to him.
Now?
I couldn’t get close enough. Skin to skin was too far apart.
The thought had me rolling onto him, straddling him and sandwiching his hardening dick against my belly.
“What are you doing?” he asked, his lips curving into a smile.
“If you have to ask, then I’m not doing it right.”
He snickered, reached up and cupped my breasts. As he tested the weight of one, he nipped the tip of the other. His fingers slipped down and along my waist, settling between my thighs where he managed to slip two between my labia and began to rub my clit. Hissing, I jerked up higher onto my knees, rocking my ass back so I could give him better access.
Letting my hands rest on his thighs, arching my spine, I spread my legs wider, watching him watch me as he played with me.
He rubbed my clit before he slipped the digits down, pushing the tips of two into me. The heel of his hand ground down, making me arch my pelvis some, and I groaned as soon as he hit the right spot.
Head falling back, I rocked my hips against him, loving that my juices were leaking onto his cock, lubing him up for when I was ready to take this to another level.
He teased me for a long time, and I let him, loving that he was connecting with my body, that he was learning me as much as I was learning him. His calmness, his innate sensibilities might not have been a turn on for a woman who liked things rough and raw, but I didn’t.
I loved how he moved, how he touched me, how each caress was for a reason. Purposeful.
He made love to me, and it made me fall for him just that little bit more.
He was right in a sense, but wrong in others—I’d been scared all my life. Of my feelings, of other people’s feelings, of how they affected me, and of