12. Bexley

12

BEXLEY

I wanted to keep the kids up all night with me, but even I knew that it was getting late. After an hour-long, rousing, sweaty game of tag, I made the rounds one last time and helped the children to get cleaned up enough to be tucked back into bed. I knew that I riled them back up, and I was sure I pissed off a parent or two. But, it was worth it to see the smiles on the faces of the children who were in my care for weeks.

It felt good to see them smiling, period, to be honest.

After everyone got back into their beds and tucked in, however, exhaustion poured over me. One second, I was running around with sweat dripping down my brow as I tackled little pups to the ground, and the next second, my aching muscles wanted nothing but a bath and a bed.

Then, someone placed their hand on my shoulder.

“Oh, no you don’t,” I growled.

Before I clocked what happened, I grabbed the wrist attached to the hand that curled against my shoulder and shot my ass out. In one fell swoop, I ducked down and hoisted the person over my back, removing the threat in a heartbeat. My stomach leapt into my throat as I whipped the person in the air over my head. I slammed them down at my feet, ready to gaze into the eyes of my attacker.

Only to find a pair of icy blazing blue eyes staring back at me with a halo ring of fiery red hair blanketing the ground.

“Oh my God,” I said breathlessly as I scrambled to get the woman up from the dirt. “Jesus Christ, I am so fucking sorry. Are you okay? I didn’t know who you were and?—”

She giggled as she jumped to her feet without my help and dusted herself off. “You know, Ronyn warned me not to come up behind you. So, I suppose that’s technically on me.”

I blinked as I watched her clean herself up. “If he told you not to, then why did you?”

She beamed at me. “Curiosity, I suppose.”

I had to admit, that made me smile a bit. “Well, I guess I can’t get mad at a bit of curiosity. Beats what I thought you were doing.”

“Which was?”

I shrugged. “Trying to kill me.”

She blinked before she linked her arm with mine. “Good thing I came to find you, then.”

She led me away from the houses. “Why’s that?”

Her smile simply grew. “Because you need to unwind.”

The further away we got from the houses, the more I craned my head over my shoulder. I didn’t want to leave my pack. I didn’t want to leave the kids behind. But, when I peered over my shoulder and saw Voss helping the rest of the packs back inside their homes, I relaxed a bit. I wasn’t sure about much, but there was something about Voss that felt inherently safe.

You know, despite how we met.

“Here we are,” the woman who’s name I still couldn’t recall said as she stopped us in front of what looked like an oversized sauna. “Ready for your bath?”

I furrowed my brow deeply. “My what?”

She bounded up the steps and opened the door. “Your bath. We have a nice, hot bath fit for an Alpha in here. It’s time you unwound now that you’re safe.”

God, I had to admit, a bath sounded amazing. “So, I’m not looking at a sauna or something?”

She slipped inside. “Why don’t you come and see for yourself?”

I wasted no time getting up those stairs. I probably took them a bit too quickly, if I’m being honest. The second I slipped into the bathhouse, however, it didn’t matter. The steam that filled the air and the lovely floral scents that wafted beneath my nose held me hostage. There was a massive above-ground bath sitting in the middle of the room that could have easily fit four, if not more, people into it. Steam rose up from the rose petal-coated water, and I watched as milky substances were poured into the steaming liquid.

“What’s all that?” I asked.

The woman with the red hair came over to me. “Arms up.”

“What?”

She grabbed the lower hem of my shirt. “I said, arms up.”

I shook my head. “You don’t have?—”

Before I could get another word out, she ripped my shirt over my head. Hands pawed at me as my clothes came off in a flurry, and my mind swirled with all of the things that happened seemingly at once. One set of hands rubbed me down with something that felt like baby oil, even though it soaked almost immediately into my skin. Someone else brushed something through my hair, working out the knots as the woman with the red hair helped me into the bath. The second both of my feet were inside the copper encasement, I eased down into the water. A sigh laced with something akin to a groan left my lips, and at that moment, I didn’t care how many people saw me naked.

Especially when I opened my eyes and found myself surrounded by women.

“All right, girls, let’s give her some time alone. If you need to work on your potions, get to the practice room. If Ronyn asked you to help with the efforts, head to him for your next command. Otherwise, go get some rest.”

And just like that, the women dispersed.

Leaving only me and…

“Merida,” the woman said as she pulled up a chair beside the steaming hot bath I sat in.

I nodded slowly. “Bexley.”

She smirked. “I know. Now, lean up.”

“Why?”

She tilted her head. “Are you going to do as I ask? Or are you going to keep asking questions?”

I knew when I had been bested, so I screwed my mouth shut and leaned forward. I wrapped my arms around my knees as I curled them to my chest, and I felt that beautiful woman pour hot water all down my back. I placed my forehead onto the tops of my knees as she scrubbed my back. I let her lift my face up so that she could give me a facial. At least, it felt like a facial anyway. The scent of lavender and milk honey hung in the air as Merida washed my hair. The second the conditioner touched my locks, it was as if my entire scalp was rejuvenated. The cleaner I got, the bigger my smile became, and the relaxation forcing its way through the marrow of my bones caused me to sink deeper into the creamy water.

I’d never been so pampered in all my life.

If I wasn’t so full of food and wine, I probably would have felt guilty for it.

BOOM!

CRASH!

SLAM!

Out of nowhere, the bath house door burst open. Merida gasped as she leapt up, jumping into the air and landing on the other side of the bath, effectively covering me from the intruder. Cold air rushed in, prickling my skin and sinking me further into the depths of the steamy hot water that didn’t change in temperature a bit.

I wanted to know how they managed that.

“Did you not see the ‘occupied’ sign, Ronyn?” Merida asked.

That’s when I looked up and whipped my head in his direction. Not that I didn’t know who it was in the first place. Ronyn had a…distinct smell to him.

“Ronyn? Is everything okay?” I asked as I looked over at him.

“Out, Merida. Now.”

“General, if I could just have a few minutes to finish up?—”

He pinned her with a look. “Now.”

I reached up and patted the back of Merida’s arm. “It’s okay. Just give us a few minutes.”

Then, and only then, did she vacate the bath house. But, not before staring that man down as she slipped past him.

“She’s not done with her bath yet, so don’t dirty her up,” she warned.

And after tossing me a playful wink, she made her exit from the bath house, leaving me alone with the brutal man that I knew wasn’t buying my story.

“Ronyn,” I said with a nod of my head.

He kept his hardened stare on my face as he stood there.

“All right, let’s try this another way,” I said, shifting beneath the water, though I still kept myself covered from him. “Need me alone for a reason?”

With his gaze holding mine hostage, he stalked toward the tub. He wrapped around, circling me like prey, and a couple of times, he even bent down to sniff me. I rolled my eyes as he finally perched on the edge of the chair Merida was sitting in before he so rudely interrupted.

“I was so close to being relaxed, you know,” I said as I kept my eyes on him.

He leaned forward, his gaze dancing all along my face. And even though I did my best to look as unbothered as possible, my entire body locked back up. Gone was the relaxation. Gone was the feeling of being comfortably disarmed. I was back to being on high alert. And as his face stopped just mere inches from mine, I felt the heat of his breath pulsing against my face.

It caused me to press my finger to his nose before I slowly pushed his face away. “You know, personal space is a thing for me.”

His nostrils flared. “You can’t hear our groupthink.”

I blinked as I gazed into his steel gray eyes. Fuck. He figured it out. I’d done okay getting around that shit with my pack using my profiling skills, but Ronyn was a fucking rock. I couldn’t read a damn thing about him, no matter how he turned or pivoted or sounded. He was a vault, and I had a devil of a time reading him as he sat there in that bath house with me.

I pivoted the best way I knew how. “Maybe I just don’t like talking inside my head.”

His stare raked down the parts of my body that he could see. “Our mating bond should have secured that.”

There was that fucking word again. It made me angry to hear, but I stuffed it down and went with a stereotypical shrug.

“Not my fault you’re having performance issues,” I said coolly.

“What the hell did you just say?” he snarled as he stood.

His threatening stance leapt me into overdrive, and instincts took over. The instant he stood, I jumped up from the bath and hopped up onto the edge of it. I swiped a cheese knife off a tray of food I hadn’t even realized was sitting next to me as I balanced on the meager inch and a half of space the edge of the copper had. But even standing on its edge, I was still only eye level with Ronyn, gripping that blunt cheese knife against my wrist as if I were about to gouge his fucking eyeballs out.

Jesus Christ, the man was massive.

Bubbles dripped down my naked body and popped against my skin. Even Ronyn had to stand back and admire it as he licked his lips. My gaze dropped to his dick. I watched it stiffen behind his pants. Ronyn’s eyes devoured me. But, I wasn’t letting him off the hook that easily.

“Choose your next words wisely,” I warned as his stare snapped back up to mine, “because you have no idea what I’m capable of with a cheese knife.”

To my shock, he snatched me out of the tub and wrapped his strong, muscle-bound arm around my waist. “Do you really not feel this?”

I leaned back away from him, despite how warm and strong his body felt. His cock pulsed against my belly button, jumping and pulsing softly between us. I felt it, all right, and I hated how heated my body became. How tender my thighs felt. How weak my knees already were with just his arm wrapped around my body.

Something swam behind his eyes. Something cold, and devious. I knew he was someone that I couldn’t trust. I had to keep an eye on him.

And yet…

“Do you really not feel this?” Ronyn asked, a bit firmer that time around.

“Yes,” I said breathlessly, “I feel it.”

The sigh of relief that escaped his mouth had nothing on the way he crashed it against my own. He growled down the back of my throat as he wrapped his other arm around me, hoisting me off my feet and pulling me against his chiseled form. I melted against him. I didn’t even care that I was practically making my rounds through the pack. There was something in the air that kept pulling me toward these men. Something in the air that kept them coming back. That kept them flocking to me. And while I knew what the word ‘mate’ meant, I knew it was only a matter of time before they found out that I wasn’t a shifter and that they simply were wrong.

But, why couldn’t a girl have some fun in the process?

After all, I had a fuckton of stress to get rid of anyway.

And it was enough of an excuse for my brain to allow my body to sink further against him.

Giving myself over to him the way I did Dom on those rocks before the celebration.