Lexi lay curled against his chest as the sun touched the horizon and its rays spread across the room. He’d tried to get her to sleep, but she refused. And Cole would not sleep while with her, not after what happened when she tried to wake him from a nightmare. And while she trusted him not to attack her again accidentally, he didn’t.
So as the night sped by, they talked for a couple of hours, had sex again, and talked some more, but they’d both grown silent an hour ago.
“I’d like to learn how to fight,” she finally said. “My father taught me how to throw a punch, and I’m scrappy, but he refused to teach me to do anything more. He believed fighting was unladylike, but I think it’s necessary.”
Knowing how to fight wouldn’t help her much against a stronger supernatural, but she’d inflict as much damage on them as she could beforehand. And she would learn the best ways to attack Malakai if he ever tried to put his hands on her again.
“I’ll teach you when the trials are over,” he said. “There’s still time for you to sleep.”
“No.”
“Lexi—”
“Our time together has gone by way too fast, and I might not see you for a while. I’ll sleep when I return home.”
“I’d prefer it if you’d stay here, away from Malakai.”
“In a palace that the council is going to move into?”
“Brokk can take you somewhere safe.”
“I’ll be safe at home.”
“You’d be safer here.”
• • •
When she tilted her head back to look at him, he marveled at her beauty and how fast she’d healed. Sahira’s potions worked magic on Brokk when he nearly died, and they were doing the same for her.
Almost all the bruising and swelling was gone from her face. Malakai’s fingerprints had faded from her neck, as had the welts they left behind.
“Would I?” she asked. “I don’t think Becca likes me very much.”
He should have known that bitch would come up eventually.
“Her opinion doesn’t matter,” he said.
“Maybe not to you, but she is a member of the council, and I’m a half human, half vampire who doesn’t belong here. I doubt she and the council would be happy if they discovered me somewhere in the Gloaming.”
“I can keep you safe.”
“Not while you’re going through the trials.”
“Brokk—”
“We agreed I was going to return home after this, and I am going home.”
Cole contemplated it, but she may well be right; she might be safer at home than in the Gloaming. There were few he trusted here now that his father was dead. Things were calm, but he doubted they would stay that way.
The dark fae had lost a king they admired, and there was a lot of power up for grabs. And power made mortals and immortals do crazy things. They could never claim the throne without enduring the trials, but they could make it more complicated to keep the throne once he survived the trials.
“Were things serious between you and Becca?” she asked.
The last thing he wanted to discuss was Becca, but he wouldn’t lie to her about the woman or try to deny their past. “No.”
“But there was something between you?”
“There hasn’t been anything between us in a long time.”
When she looked to the window, he clasped her chin and turned her head back to him. Her sweeping lashes brushed her cheek before they lifted. For a second, he lost himself in the fathomless sea of her green eyes.
“The only thing Becca truly wants is power, and she mistakenly saw me as her way to gain more of it. What little there ever was between Becca and me is over, and there will never be anything between us again,” he vowed.
“I don’t think she agrees with that statement.”
“I don’t care what she thinks. You’re it for me, Lexi, and I mean it.”
Doubt swirled in her eyes. He caressed her cheek as he bent to kiss the tip of her nose. He had to tell her what she was to him; it would add pressure to her, but it would also ease her doubts about their relationship.
Everyone knew a lycan never betrayed their mate.