Come to Keep Me Company?

Aurora's POV

"No. In your dreams."

I could barely breathe. I drove my heel down on Kaelen's foot and stumbled out — straight into Cedric, already coming toward me.

He tipped his head at Kaelen, who stood in the doorway smiling, and looked at me. "What's going on, Aurora? Do you and Kaelen know each other?"

I shook my head fast. "No. No, we don't. We've only just met — first time."

In the mirror on the wall I caught myself: flushed cheeks, faint dimples, a body that read as full and striking.

Cedric stared, swallowed hard, then took my hand and led me out the castle gate without a word.

We walked the mountain path. Ancient trees stood tall on either side, grown thick enough to hide us.

Cedric drew me deeper into the woods.

Then he pressed me back against a smooth-barked trunk, caged me in with his arms, and said, suddenly, with feeling: "Aurora, I love you."

That word sits heavy on me. But he said it with such certainty that guilt turned over in my chest.

He put his arm around my neck and drew me against him.

Listening to his heartbeat, I felt an inexplicable restlessness, a low panic that wouldn't settle.

"Aurora!" Cedric murmured, and kissed me.

I hung on him and tilted my face up to meet it, the softness at my chest pressed to the hard plane of his.

Something low on him went hard at once. I only startled — because my own body answered with nothing at all.

He held me tighter and the kiss turned insistent. His tongue pushed into my mouth and worked back and forth across my teeth.

"Aurora, I want you."

Cedric's mouth traveled down to my chin, then slipped inside my collar. He buried his face between my breasts and bit down, lightly.

"Ah!"

The sound came out of me thin and unwilling — and even that jolt of current brought no wanting with it.

"Aurora, you smell so good!" His face was pressed into my chest, breathing fast, hips grinding against me, trying to show me what he had for me.

"Today at the assembly I told them you were unwell and pushed your review to tomorrow morning. Let me mark you, Aurora. It'll go easier at the bloodline trial."

"Mmm…" I tipped my head back and pressed my thighs together, trying to produce something, and failing.

And then I looked up, and saw him: Kaelen, standing behind a tree not far off.

Those deep eyes blinked slowly. He blew me a kiss. I went rigid, nearly lost my footing — and heat surged low in my belly. I had to hold onto Cedric's arm to stay upright.

Cedric felt me go still and start to shiver. He took it for cold and held me closer. His other hand had already found its way under my skirt.

He found the wet there, and his face lit with joy. He caught my lip between his and teased, low: "You're wet, Aurora. Wet for me. I want you."

But that wetness — it was only because Kaelen had appeared.

I couldn't give myself to Cedric now. If we coupled, he could find the mark Kaelen left on me years ago, and everything would come apart.

So I struggled gently, and let myself say I was cold.

"We should go back." My face closed over. Cedric looked at me, lost.

He couldn't understand how I had gone from clinging to him to this, so fast.

In the end Cedric loved me too much. He saw I was uncomfortable and walked me back to my room to rest early.

I lay turning over and over under a weight of dread, and couldn't sleep. Come nightfall I slipped into Kaelen's room to end it.

If he wouldn't cover for me, then he left me no choice. Finish it cleanly. Kill him, get clear of all of this, start over.

His room was furnished dark, laid out much like the man himself — back when we were together he'd had no shortage of ways to work me over, and he'd run me ragged often enough.

I had just drawn the dagger from my sleeve when Kaelen's eyes opened.

He smiled, wrong and slow. "Come to keep me company?"

He flicked his hand. The dagger dropped out of my sleeve.

"Is Cedric worth all this? Is being his Luna worth all this?"

I had no answer for that. He'd caught me trying to kill him — and I remembered what he used to do to people who tried. I bolted for the door. He'd been ready. He caught my clothes and hauled back, and said, low: "Run, and I'll tear them off you."

I knew he meant it. If the dress went, was I supposed to walk into the first day of bloodline review naked?

I stopped. I begged, quietly: "I'll give you one night. But after tonight, it's over, for good. These seven days — you can't shift, and you cover for me. Agreed?"

Kaelen turned the dagger over in his fingers. Then his hand closed and he pulled me into him and took my earlobe between his lips.

"All right."

He ran his tongue lightly across my face. He was a hunter who had already closed on his kill, hands patient against me, moving over me without hurry.

Under his hands I shook. I was soaked through already. And I kept my teeth locked on my lip so no sound would come out.

Kaelen's face darkened. He put me down on the bed and worked his mouth along my throat, downward.

He took my clothes off, then took me in his hands and lowered his mouth to me, and that wet, soft touch went through my whole body like current.

"Ah!" Every wall I had, every scrap of holding on, gave way at once.