33. Chapter Thirty-Five

My mother's soft touch slid against my skin and tossed me back into the depths of my childhood. The smell of fresh bread, with jelly spread on top, and a full tummy warmed my insides.

The sound of a nearby stream tickled the back of my mind.

Laughter. Chatting. Birds.

It was plucked out of a perfect dream.

The trees above me swayed in a gentle breeze that only an ocean could give, and the lush grass almost swallowed me in bliss.

My mother's blue eyes sparkled when she leaned over me, offering her hand to help me stand. I chuckled, bouncing upward, I wrapped my arms around her stomach and inhaled.

The timeline didn't fit. None of it did. I was much younger when my mother was killed, so young I wouldn"t have remembered any of it. I knew that, but it didn"t stop me from enjoying the thought of what could have been.

Perhaps it was a subconscious play of my brain. A memory I wish I had of my mother. The childhood I longed for every night when I went to bed not knowing if anyone loved me.

When I was forced to go to my room earlier than Helena"s kids, without the bowl of ice cream they were eating.

My mother's gaze lifted from mine and over my head.

Her spine stiffened, and her arms pulled me tighter against her chest. I glanced back over my shoulder to see a man staring at us between two giant trees.

He tilted his head, I blinked, and he appeared only a few feet away from us. A scream ripped from my throat, drawing me out of my nightmare and to a sitting position in our bed.

Dorran sat up beside me, his wings spread out in a protective shield around us. His dark eyes all over me as if I'd hurt myself.

"Are you okay?" he asked, his thick fingers coiling around the nape of my neck. "You've been so restless these last few hours. I"ve been worried."

My gaze shifted toward the window and into the night sky.

"What time is it?" I asked, my voice hoarse from sleep.

"10 PM," he said. "You've slept most of the day."

I needed it because I couldn't sleep tonight. The drink Zerk made me had worn off, and Evian was reaching out to me now. Bending my knees, I rested my cheek against them and stared at Dorran"s handsome face.

"How did the chat with your dad go?"

Suddenly his mood sunk, and his gaze shifted toward the bed where he tugged the sheets from him and stood up. I knew that wasn't a good sign. I took my time watching as he walked around the room to get dressed. He looked like the statue of a man in front of me.

The muscles.

The tanned skin.

The broad shoulders.

Square jaw.

But none of it made him more beautiful than what was inside of him. The passion. The care. It was what made him perfect for me. The measures he would go. Something no one had ever done for me.

Dorran turned to face me with his hands on his hips. Several pieces of curls fell onto his forehead. "He doesn't want to risk his army. He thinks the sirens will demolish them because we don't know what to expect."

I stood up slowly and walked toward him.

"You look surprised," I said.

"No," he said. "I'm pissed. My parents have proved, yet again, that they don"t care about anyone other than themselves. My brother thinks he can get the army to prepare without my father knowing. It's the only chance we have at beating Evian and having help."

"Well, it's a chance, right?"

Dorran locked his jaw, unable to lie and answer my question. I wanted that lie like before.

Stepping forward, I slid my palm against his jaw, watching his irises dance from my touch. "Let's eat. I'm hungry."

Dorran led me down the hallway to an empty living room. He had plates ready to be heated in the fridge. "Zerk went home?"

"Yeah," he said. "He said he needed to sleep so he could work on finding useful information about the sirens tomorrow. Were you dreaming about him earlier?"

Dorran slammed the microwave door shut and turned to face me.

"Yes. I was having a dream about my mother, which I'm pretty certain didn't happen, because I was too old, and Evian showed up." I twirled a piece of my ponytail around my finger.

Dorran stared out the kitchen window and into the darkness. I wasn't sure if he saw something or not, but he looked pissed. When the food was ready, he slid the plate toward me, and I inhaled the garlic parmesan chicken. "Thank you for this."

Dorran braced his forearms on the counter in front of his plate. "Toby brought it from the castle. I"ve been trying to sleep today so you won"t be alone tonight. I"m sure Glendora made it. I miss her cooking."

We both ate in silence, only the sound of our silverware against our plates, and the occasional guard speaking outside. Dorran took my plate when I finished, and I walked down the hallway to start a shower.

The water didn't bring new powers like I secretly hoped because we would need all the manpower we could get when they got here.

The shower door opened, and Dorran's scent wafted inward. His body always warmed me when he neared, and put me at east. He didn't say anything when he walked inside, only sank his fingers into my hair and began to massage my scalp.

The pressure against my skin felt good enough that I could have fallen back asleep. "I'm afraid," I whispered.

Dorran turned me to face him, water cascading down his face and chest. "It's okay to be afraid. It's when you give up there's a problem."

There were so many what-ifs racing in my mind.

What if we didn't win?

What if Evian dragged me back to their kingdom and burned me at the stake?

My tears mixed with the water, and Dorran pulled me to his chest. I rested there in his arms until all my sadness turned to anger.

I was angry that my childhood had been taken from me.

Angry that someone wanted to take away my happily ever after that I deserved right when it was given to me.

Dorran bent down and kissed my forehead softly—sweetly.

I tangled my fingers into his hair and pressed my mouth against his. The kiss was angry. I knew my feelings were spilling out of me and onto him, but Dorran seemed to eat them up like candy. I was glad because I had so much to give.

Dorran reached down and palmed my ass, lifting me to his hips, he propped me against the shower door, his mouth heavy on mine.

The feelings inside of me were raging.

Out of control.

Dorran maneuvered me around until he was pressed against my entrance. He made eye contact with me, filling me in one solid thrust, he fisted my hair and pressed my back against the shower wall.

A cry fell out of my mouth at the pressure.

Each thrust pushed me harder onto him.

Into the moment. Into us.

Dorran began to whisper into my ear, my name, ungodly things that made me blush, but my body loved it. I yearned for him so deeply that I wanted more than he could give me.

His teeth against my neck, and the bite marks I knew he'd leave there, added to the rough feeling of his palm against my ass, and his animalistic thrusts. It all mixed together in a bowl of need that washed me free of my stress.

"More," I begged, hoping Evian would see. That he would see what he was taking from me.

The tears on my cheeks dried and the anger grew. Before long, I was on all fours on the shower floor, Dorran's hand rested above my head against the wall as he hammered into me from behind.

The water from the shower fell into my eyes, and I tilted my head to get a better angle to see.

An orgasm spilled out of me, and my eyes closed in pure enjoyment, but Dorran's thrusts stopped.

Glancing back over my shoulder, I looked at him with worried eyes. What happened?

"What's wrong—,"

But then I noticed it. There was an invisible umbrella around us, blocking the water from touching us. I blinked, trying to make sense of what was keeping the water from hitting us.

Dorran stared at me until I realized he thought I was doing it. I wasn"t, was I? I hadn"t even thought about the water.

"You're controlling the water, Little Mouse."

I blinked several times, not knowing how I did it, but understanding it was because the water was irritating me. "I don't know how," I whispered.

Dorran grabbed my hip, slipped deeper inside, then out of me. "It's emotion," he whispered, pulling out and then back in.

In seconds he spilled his seed onto the shower floor and pulled me close to him. "Your emotions have been all over the place every time something happened. You were drunk in the shower the first time and scared the second. Now you're angry. Your emotions bring out your powers, and I think when this army arrives, you'll show them just what you're made of."

I hoped that was true. I"d been so timid growing up that the thought of fighting anyone sounded ludicrous, but if I didn"t believe in myself, who would believe in me?

Dorran helped me to my feet, brushing my hair from my eyes, I caught a glimpse of Evian in the corner of the room like the creep he was.

Our eye contact was long and uneasy.

I felt his anger.

But better yet, I felt his fear of the unknown.