Chapter 69: Chapter 69

~ ROWAN

Unlike all the other days where the dining table was filled with more food than one person could possibly eat, I’d opted for a simple dinner with just the two of us.

Nyssa kept her hands tightly pressed to her side and I couldn’t help but notice how she tried to avoid my eyes despite the fact that we sat right next to each other.

It’d take a while to get her comfortable around me… I knew that much.

“Thank you,” she whispered softly, reaching for the plate of food in front of her.

I’d asked the maids to go all out with steak, mashed potatoes and sautéed vegetables. It was a meal worthy of a fine dining restaurant but Nyssa didn’t as much as acknowledge it except for her earlier expression of gratitude.

She just shoved a forkful into her mouth and chewed quietly.

I suppose it was fitting that she barely paid me any heed now when I’d been an ass to her earlier. It was my karma for not accepting what was right in front of me.

I hated that it took her being accused of something for me to decide that I wanted her. It took me facing the possibility of her being imprisoned or worse for me to get my head pout of my fucking ass—

“You’re staring,” she pointed out, voice low and uneasy. “Is there something on my face or in my teeth?”

I shook my head but it was clear she didn’t believe me because I caught her using the back of the spoon as a mirror.

She was beautiful, even when she wasn’t trying. Even when I tried to keep her at arms length there was no denying her beauty. It wasn’t flashy… it was soft and gentle, the kind that creeped up on you unaware.

She shuffled in her seat at my continuous staring, the tips of her ears turning a light shade of pink.

She flushed easy, and I shouldn’t have enjoyed watching her cheeks grow pink as much as I did.

“Is there a problem?” I teased. “You look a little warm.”

A red flush crawled up her neck and a bead of sweat gathered around her temples.

She turned away from me, lightly fanning herself with her hands as she shook her head. “It’s a bit hot in here… that’s all.”

I raised a brow at her obvious lie.

The windows were open and cool breeze rushed in every other second. It wasn’t anywhere near freezing, but it sure as hell was not hot.

“Hot?” I repeated and she nodded, shrugging off her jacket.

Underneath she wore a simple white sundress. I hadn’t gotten the chance to really take it in when she was yelling at me in the morning, but right now… I turned away quickly, gritting my teeth hard to keep myself from saying anything fucking stupid.

There was nothing remotely seductive about her clothes, but perhaps that was the entire point.

The neckline was low enough to tease but not low enough to be deemed as inappropriate and it was so short that her entire thighs were on display as she sat.

“Did you go out like this?” I asked and she nodded, her brows knitting in confusion.

“Is there a problem?”

An ugly slithering feeling crawled up my spine.

I shook my head, not wanting to say something that would inevitably scare her. I was on thin ice as it was and the last thing I wanted was to spook her with some overprotective bullshit.

“Are you alright?” she asked, head cocked to the side in concern. “You look constipated.”

“It’s like you said, it’s hot in here,” I lied smoothly, the words tasting like ash on my tongue.

She crossed her arms over her chest, her tits pushed up, almost as if in invitation and a low groan slipped past my lips.

My skin was taut with unease, my blood thrumming with the desire to pin her down to the table and turn her ass fucking red for even thinking about leaving this palace like that.

The worst part was, I wasn’t sure she’d stop me if I tried.

The sexual tension between us was always thrumming. The mating bond made it quite difficult to resist… or maybe it was just us.

I stood to my feet sharply, hands fisted by my side to stop myself from making any stupid moves. “I think a run would do me some good right now. Cool air and all.”

“Oh.”

Her expression went from surprise to… was that disappointment? Before settling on wistfulness.

“I apologize for leaving abruptly when I asked you to dinner—”

“It’s not you, I promise,” she waved me off absentmindedly. “I haven’t shifted in a while is all.”

“How long is a while?”

She thought about it for a moment. “The first time I shifted was two days before I came here with Henry.”

She was twenty-four. “First time?”

She smiled sadly. “I’m a late bloomer. I probably should have told you that before you decided you want to mate with me. I’m not even sure if I can shift again, I haven’t tried. If you want to back out—”

“Why would I?”

She turned to me, her expression slightly annoyed. “Don’t mock me, Rowan. We all know that a wolf who can’t shift is a runt. We all know how useless they are.”

“Maybe that’s how things worked in your pack, but the people who can’t shift here help us in the human lands. I’ve never even heard the word runt before now.”

She swallowed deeply, eyes searching mine as if trying to figure out if I was lying.

I had no idea how things were done in the packs, but she’d soon come to learn that things were very different here.

“Join me on a run.” She hesitated. “You said it yourself, you haven’t been in a while. Join me.”

I held out a hand to her and she stared at it intensely for a full minute.

When she did finally take it, I knew then that I was screwed.

Bolts of electricity ran up my spine. As she stepped closer, her scent nearly sent me to my knees, begging for a taste of her.

Keeping my hands off her would fucking kill me… that much, I was sure of.

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