17. Bella

”Careful now!” Alastair yelled at me as I rounded a corner and slammed right into him, too concerned with keeping the bed sheet wrapped around me to pay attention to my path. Alastair stared at me as the corners of his lips twitched upward, but the glare on my face that I pinned to him had him swallowing hard. ”Bad night?” he asked as he pressed his lips together. His expressive eyes betrayed him, however, as they danced with mirth.

”Actually,” I almost yelled. ”It was the best damn night of my life. It was the morning that turned into shit.” I wrapped the sheet tighter around me as I stumbled down the corridor toward my room, hearing Alastair chuckle from behind.

”Funny, Lore said much the same,” I heard him say behind my back, and I wanted to scream. ”Back in my day, we called that corridor the walk of shame.” He laughed.

I rounded the corner, slamming the door to my room and dropping the sheet instantly, muttering curses about Lore to no one but myself… or so I thought. As I entered the room, I realized Alysha was holding a tray.

Her eyes widened at my disheveled nude body. I glared at her, refusing to cover up, too angry to care.

”This big as freaking hell castle and all you people can do is be exactly where I don”t need you to be!” I yelled at her.

She flinched, and guilt hit me like a ton of bricks.

”I… I”m sorry,” I said, my voice softer as I covered my breasts with my arms. I grabbed my discarded clothing—the ones I”d arrived in—and quickly threw them on.

Alysha stood silent until it hung heavy in the air.

”I”m sorry, it”s just…” I trailed off, not wanting to share my morning activities with the whole damn castle. Some things, including my shame, were meant to be private. Once dressed, I moved closer to her. ”I was unkind. I am truly sorry. My foul mood is not of your making.”

Alysha let out a long, heavy breath. ”You slept with him?” She stared at me as if she”d never seen me before. Shame hit me again as I felt it course through me, and I stepped back.

”I, uh, I did. It was weird—his eyes were red and then his dragon came to me last night, and I don”t know, I just… I just lost all sense of everything.”

I”d lost my damn mind, more like it. It had been… it had been glorious. Everything I”d ever wanted for the first time that had never been given to me. I could still feel the pleasant throb between my legs where he had been just a mere hour earlier. The thought sent desire through me once again, and I clamped my lips tight together to keep from moaning. There was something seriously wrong with me.

Alysha studied me with a myriad of emotions flashing across her face as she inspected me. I didn”t know her well enough to read her, but it looked like both relief and concern.

”You saw his dragon?” she asked, setting down the breakfast tray and sitting as if her legs gave out on her. ”What did he say?”

”He did that whole alpha thing like the wolves do when they want to own a woman. He said I was his. All…” I lowered my voice to mimic Lore”s dragon voice, ”You”re mine.”

”He…” She stared at me as if I was the most baffling creature she”d ever seen. ”He claimed you?”

I shrugged. ”If you want to call it that. Bunch of macho misogynistic crap if you ask me.”

Alysha touched her face, and then her hand went to her heart. She then lifted her arm and pinched it. ”Oh, dear,” she breathed, her gaze seemingly in a daze. ”I should go start the roast for tonight,” she said offhandedly as she rose. She departed, leaving me in the room with a tray of food. My stomach rumbled loudly, so I sighed, quelling my anger as best I could.

”You need to eat and get your strength up if you”re going to get out of here,” I muttered to the silence before I devoured the food, thankful for Alysha”s thoughtfulness because, apparently good sex left one starved.

Now more than ever, I needed to figure out this curse and make plans to escape. I knew the ending would be Lore at the end of my blade, but now, for the first time, I felt hesitation.

That desire to survive, to fight to the very last moment, and to do anything to achieve just one more day, no matter the cost. It seemed to turn murky because how would that cost tarnish my soul forever?

Would a life in this world be worth the blood on my hands? That piece of my heart, now flickered to life, told me that perhaps I should find another. There was a tiny sliver of hope, and hope was a dangerous thing.