6. Nolan

Chapter 6

Nolan

C oral’s kiss is like fire.

I feel hot everywhere, and it has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I just ripped a jaguar to pieces. I can feel her kiss in every part of my body. I can feel it from the bottoms of my feet to the top of my head.

Her kiss is like holding onto a live wire. I think some of it might be her magic, but most of it is just her. She makes my body light up like an electric storm. I can’t even hide the fact that I have an erection… that’s covered in blood.

I back off, breaking the kiss. Coral opens her eyes slowly. They’re so blue, and they seem to glow as she looks at me.

For a second, I think she’s going to say something. Then, her face falls.

Shit. Shit.

“Coral…”

“Sorry. I guess that I just got caught up in the moment. Sorry. I didn’t mean to kiss you. I just… I’m sorry,” she whispers. She turns to go, but I absolutely cannot let her walk away from me thinking that I didn’t want her kiss.

I do want it. I want it very, very badly. I want to do more than just kiss her.

Catching her hand, I pull it and put it on my chest. It’s covered in blood, too, and the sight of her pale, slim fingers on me make me lose my mind for a second. I take a deep breath.

“The kiss was good. Really good. Can you feel my heart?” I ask.

Coral frowns, then her eyes widen. She looks up at me. “It’s beating really fast.”

“Yeah. Because I liked your kiss.”

“But that could just be adrenaline from the fight…”

“If you slid your hand down my torso, it would be really clear that it’s not from the fight,” I growl.

Coral gulps, nibbling on her bottom lip. “Oh.”

“Yeah. But. I am covered in blood. You just almost got killed. When I kiss you again, Coral, I want us both to be in a state of mind where the kiss means… more,” I breathe.

There’s a heartbeat. A thudding of my chest against her hand. Then she nods.

“More,” she echoes.

“Yes. So we’re going to go back to your cottage. I’m going to use your very famous, functional plumbing, and then we’re going to tell Thorne what happened.”

Coral looks at where her hand is splayed out on my chest. She looks up at me.

“At least, I think the shower works, anyway.”

By the time I’m clean, I’ve calmed down a little. I don’t turn rock-hard every time I think of Coral, so that’s good. But I definitely can’t think of the kiss, because if I do, I’ll have the same problem all over again.

Luckily, I was out of my clothes by the time I shifted, so they’re not shredded, but they are covered in blood. Gross.

Reluctantly, I put my bloody clothes back on. I walk out of Coral’s tiny bathroom, toweling my hair off as I do. She’s sitting in the one little chair in her small living room. I’m not even sure it could be called a chair; it is a piece of wood that holds someone to sit in, definitely. But I’m pretty sure that it’s a tree’s interpretation of a chair.

“Ready?” I say, looking at her.

Coral’s eyes look sad when she looks over my clothes. “Are you sure you don’t want?—”

“I don’t think spider-silk is going to work for me. Usually, heavy-duty sweatpants are all that I can manage. And I wear through them a few times a month,” I grin at her.

I just shred them. Frequently, when I shift.

Coral gives me a small smile. “That’s fair.”

“Come on. I think we can try to make it to the alpha’s office in a couple of hours.”

Without thinking, once we exit the cottage, I put my hand out behind me. Coral’s fingers slip into mine, and I squeeze. Slightly.

We end up walking to the alpha’s office without seeing a single pack member. I can tell that Coral’s nervous about seeing others in the pack. I would be, too, if I spent as much time alone as she does.

Thorne is the only one in the office. I knock, and when he tells us to come in, I let Coral lead. Thorne’s eyebrows raise when he sees her.

“Coral. This is a huge surprise. What’s going on?”

“Oh. Um. I saw your note, and we’ve done some work with the wards, but I don’t think it’s working,” she says.

He looks over to me.

“A shifter attacked Coral.”

Thorne’s body language shifts immediately. His face drops into a serious expression, and he looks at me, his eyes grave. “Report.”

I go through everything. The ward, leaving out Coral’s incredible feat of moving the trees. I mention that I brought her back to her cabin after the ward’s completion, and that we were on the way to get to the other three when the jaguar attacked.

Thorne listens to everything. When I get to the end, I look at Coral. “Did I miss anything?”

“Only the blood,” she murmurs.

It seems like it’s half to herself, but Thorne catches the comment.

“Coral,” he says, shifting in his seat. “I appreciate the ward. But it seems like the shifter wasn’t coming for the pack. He was coming for you.”

I agree completely.

Coral stiffens. “How… we don’t know?—”

“I’ve suspected, but now, I’m sure. Coral, I believe that the shifters who have come for you are mercenaries.”

Coral pales, and I want to punch Thorne in the face for upsetting her.

Whoa. Back off, Nolan.

“Mercenaries,” I echo, trying to get Thorne to say more.

“Yes. I think that whoever wanted your hive destroyed in Seattle wants to find you.”

“But… why?” Coral whispers. Both Thorne and I stare at her. “I’m not special. There are other faeries who are more powerful. Even plant faeries who are more powerful. I’m no one special. I’m just… me,” she whispers.

I can’t help it. I move forward, wrapping an arm around her.

“You’re not just you,” I murmur. “You are exceptional.”

She leans into me and sighs, burying her nose in my shoulder.

Thorne’s eyebrows skyrocket, but I shoot him a glare. Whatever he’s thinking, not now. Not. Now.

Thorne leans back. “I think that Nolan’s been doing an excellent job at protection. However, if your location has been disclosed, I think that it might be time to make an adjustment there.”

Coral shifts. “What?”

I agree. What?

Thorne looks over at me, his eyes glinting with some kind of mischief that I haven’t quite figured out yet. “Amara and Jasper moved back to their new house, right?”

“Yes.” To Coral’s questioning eyes, I say, “Amara is my sister, and she and her fated mate were staying with me because of a plumbing situation at her house.”

“Ah. Yes. Working plumbing, that’s usually very important.” Coral nods.

I laugh, but Thorne clearly doesn’t get it.

“I think that Coral should stay with you until we can figure out who is organizing the mercenaries and do what we can to continue to protect her,” he says firmly.

My heart leaps like a fucking prancing pony.

“Absolutely,” I say. “I think that’s a great idea.”

“But… what about my meadow?” Coral says softly.

I turn to look at her. “We’ll go back. I promise this is only temporary.”

I notice that she doesn’t say anything about the use of we. But she does nod. She frowns, looking up at me. “I’ll have to learn all of your plants.”

“I have a feeling, Coral, that you’re really going to love my house.”

“Bluebells and bees,” Coral whispers when we make it to my house. “I love this place.”

I can’t help it. I smile, the feeling of satisfaction pouring through me better than any feeling I’ve ever had in my entire life.

“I thought you’d like it,” I say, ushering her forward.

It turns out, old vehicles do just fine with Coral. She got a little green when we first got into the truck, but when I rolled the windows down, she said she could still feel her magic. And, of course, the truck worked just fine.

“What kind of house is this?” she asks, trailing her fingers over the walls.

“It’s called an Earthship,” I say, smiling bigger at her reaction.

“What does that mean?”

“It’s a style of building that’s meant to be extremely eco-friendly. It uses the power of the earth to stay cool in the summer and warm in the winter. I collect rainwater and have a well, so most of the water I use is off the grid, and the electricity all runs on solar. I also installed solar tubes in the bigger rooms so that it takes place of the electric lighting as well…”

I stop talking because I feel like I’m just bragging at this point. Coral, however, taps on my arm. “Go on. Do the solar tubes work for plants?”

“I don’t have a lot of plants inside. But I do have a pretty decent sized garden out back.”

Coral gasps. Audibly. “A garden? What do you grow?”

“Honestly? Nothing right now,” I say sadly. “I started a bunch of seeds, but with Amara coming in and ruining all of my personal space, and then some business for the alpha, I couldn’t get them in.”

“Do you still have them?”

“The seedlings?”

“Yes.”

“Well, they’re kind of a mess now, but?—”

“I’d love to see them!” she chirps. She’s a plant faerie. There’s no way that I’m going to deny her this.

“Follow me.”

We walk through the halls of the house, then out the back door until we get to the garden. I wave Coral forward. “I just have the seedlings here, in the greenhouse.”

“You have a greenhouse?!” she squeals. “That’s so cute! I have a small one, but this one is so much bigger. I can definitely grow things without one, but it helps.”

I laugh, opening the door. “Not all of us have magical plant powers, you know. Some of us have to suffer through guessing if there’s going to be growth or not.”

“It’s really so cute in here!”

She’s filled with wonder. Everywhere she goes. It makes me want to follow her around, bringing things to show her. For example, what would she do if I brought her a rare orchid? Or a huge bouquet of flowers? Would she even like flowers, because they’re not growing?

I suck in a breath. The seedlings that I have in the greenhouse really are a mess. Half of them are dead, half of them have grown so much that they’re outside of their little containers, and they all look vividly terrible.

Coral, however, is hovering over them, and they’re stretching up to reach her fingers. All of them. Even the dead ones are slowly, surely, coming back to life.

I have no words for what I’m seeing. It’s incredible. She’s coaxing a life from the seedlings that I didn’t even think was there to begin with.

“Coral…” I say softly.

She opens her eyes and grins. “I can plant them for you tomorrow.”

I would like that. I love the garden, because I’ve always loved the idea of being self-sustaining with a garden, but it’s not just about that. It’s about her.

Coral promising me tomorrow is something that hits my veins like lightning. It’s something that I can’t control. And I don’t want to.

“Let’s plant them tomorrow together,” I murmur.

Coral’s smile explodes across her face, and I know in that moment, I’d do anything to see that smile another day.