Come to Me Tonight

Aurora's POV

Listening to Cedric's voice outside the privy, panic flooded me. I shoved at Kaelen, desperate to get him out of me, out of my body, now.

Kaelen seemed to savor it. He drove into me hard, twice, three times, deliberately.

I nearly screamed again. At the last second I jammed my own hand into my mouth and barely held on.

The knocking outside grew impatient. Only then did Kaelen let go and let me slide off the stone ledge.

He straightened his clothes, looked down at me where I sat crumpled on the floor, reached down and hauled me up, and kissed my forehead.

"Such a shame. I suppose that's as far as I get to take you today. Next time, we continue." He smiled with meaning, leaned in to murmur it at my ear, then turned and slipped into the back.

There's screening back there. No one would find him unless they went looking.

I didn't spare him another thought. I scrambled up, tugged the bodice hanging off my arm roughly into place, and opened the door with shaking hands.

"Aurora — there you are. What happened? Are you ill?" Cedric looked relieved and still worried.

I didn't dare meet his eyes. I was afraid he'd read something in mine.

He took my hand and walked me back to the assembly feast.

Rosalind — mother to Cedric and Kaelen — sat at the stone table, sipping berry wine at her ease.

"I'm sorry. My stomach turned on me suddenly, and I took longer than I should have. I've kept you waiting." I spoke carefully, and stole only one quick glance up at Rosalind.

Maybe I was imagining it. But her eyes, when they rested on me, held something complicated.

"Cedric, go see whether the feast food is ready. If it is, bring the pack in."

"Yes, I'll go now. You two talk." Cedric rose with a smile and left at a brisk walk.

Once he was gone, Rosalind set down her wine and laid both hands on the table. She studied me, her brown eyes fixed on me as though she meant to see straight through me, until my skin crawled.

"Aurora, you're so beautiful. Have you ever been to the black market? There's no shortage of rare and wonderful things there."

My mind went blank.

What did she mean by that? Why bring up the black market out of nowhere? A careless remark — or does she know me?

If she knew about that part of my past, Kaelen's silence bought me nothing. This assembly would become my trial.

My palms went cold and damp with guilt.

I hedged, and lowered myself carefully into the chair beside her. The moment my backside touched the wood I felt a wet chill beneath my skirt.

My heart dropped through my chest and the sweat came out again. I'd been in such a rush that I had forgotten to put my underwear back on.

Now I was sitting in a chair with nothing on underneath.

What was I supposed to do? If someone found that underwear in the privy, what would they think of me?

Forget my past — I wouldn't have a face left to show anyone.

"Everything's about ready. I'll go bring the pack in. Oh — and Aurora should stay in the castle tonight." Cedric came back and spoke to Rosalind, breaking the awkwardness — and offering something that unsettled me far more.

It was my first visit. Being asked to stay would have been unremarkable on its own. But Kaelen was under this roof, and Rosalind's eyes were strange.

I could not stay here. Absolutely not.

Staying here, under the same roof as Kaelen night after night, would sharply raise the odds of exposure at the daytime assemblies.

"No, I'd really rather go back to my own—" I never finished.

"Aurora should stay. In seven days she'll be Luna of Moonshadow Pack. She's family." Kaelen had come back and settled in beside me as though nothing were going on.

An instant later I felt one large hand under the table, teasing its way onto my thigh.

The other pack members were taking their seats along the long table, one after another. I panicked and reached down to stop him at once, but I didn't dare move too obviously. Kaelen watched somewhere else entirely, as if it had nothing to do with him.

Then I understood: his hand, climbing steadily up my leg, was there to put the underwear back on me.

I thought my heart would come out of my throat.

My leg trembled under the table while his hand kept gripping and kneading my bare thigh.

Every touch brought me one step closer to ruin.

And I couldn't even flinch away.

"Nn— ahem!" The sound escaped me before I could stop it. The pack turned to look. I covered it with a cough, my face burning red as a just-cooked prawn.

Across the table Cedric watched me, all concern. "Aurora, are you feeling unwell again? Here, drink your soup, quickly. You're not strong — this is the most nourishing thing for you."

I seized the excuse to stand and take the bowl, to ease what my body was doing on its own.

"Aurora isn't well. She shouldn't be running back and forth for the assembly every day. She'll stay here at night. The castle has rooms to spare."

The line lifted at the end, edged with unmistakable threat.

I knew that if I dared refuse, he would say what I had been, right there, in front of Cedric and the whole pack.

I raised my face to Cedric, red-cheeked. His eyes held nothing but me.

I bent my head, took a sip of soup, and agreed in a small voice.

The moment I finished, I stood and excused myself to the kitchen to help refill the dishes, and hid there.

I'd barely got through the door before Kaelen followed. His hand found my waist unerringly; he took my earlobe between his lips and spoke low against my ear: "Come to me tonight, and I'll cover for you these seven days."