14. Bexley

14

BEXLEY

I giggled as we all flopped back down to the couch. How all four of us fit on that three-cushioned couch, I’d never figure it out. But, the more we drank, the slimmer we all seemed to believe we were. The afternoon waned into evening time, and one by one the musical acts never ceased to impress me. Man, they had a lot of talented shifters in their pack. Or, maybe it was Merida’s strong-ass wine that made them good.

Either way, I found myself really looking forward to the autumnal solstice celebration.

“Oh my God,” I said breathlessly, wiping the sweat on my brow.

“Come on, let’s get this furniture moved back before Voss kills us,” Ronyn said as the last musical act finally vacated Voss’s home.

“Here, lemme help,” I said breathlessly.

“No need,” Voss said, picking up the couch I was sitting on.

“Oh!” I squealed as I curled my legs up onto the cushions.

My jaw dropped open as Voss just… picked me up. On the couch. Like, the entire couch. With his bare hands. He dipped down, placed his hands beneath the couch, and lifted it as if it weighed nothing. He held the couch out in front of him like he was serving a fucking dinner platter to someone at a table. My eyes widened and held his cocky, confident gaze as he pivoted around in his living room and set his couch back down against the window it once sat beneath.

“There,” he said.

I studied his face. It didn’t even look like he exerted himself. “How—how did?—”

Voss chuckled. “You’ve got a lot to learn about us yet.”

My gaze volleyed to Ronyn and Dom before they came back to Voss. “Can all of you do that?”

“No,” Voss said plainly.

As I sat there, trying to process what just happened, I watched Ronyn and Dom clean up the plates and dishes while Voss just… manhandled his fucking furniture. He picked up the loveseat sofa as if it were nothing and put it on his shoulder. His fucking shoulder. Just like it was a sack of potatoes. I couldn’t help but to gawk and stare as he pieced his living room back together without so much as breaking any form of a sweat. His face wasn’t even red. He didn’t even try to catch his breath!

Jesus, how strong was the man?

“All right,” Ronyn said as he made his way to the front door, “I need to go get my troops transitioned out.”

Dom followed Ronyn in stride. “And I’ve got to wrap up plans for this solstice celebration. Plans stop for no one around here.”

“You two go,” Voss said as he backtracked into his kitchen. “Keep me updated and let me know if you need anything.”

“Will do,” Ronyn and Dom said in unison.

Then, just like that, the two of them were gone. The golden rays of the sunset swallowed them whole as they walked out of Voss’s home, and I slowly turned to the towering man as he put on a pot of coffee in the kitchen.

“Thirsty?” he asked. “I always enjoy a cup of coffee before I go on a walk.”

That perked up my ears. “Would you like some company on your walk?”

A shadow of a grin ticked his cheeks. “Sure. Want some coffee before we head out?”

I shook my head. “If I have any caffeine, I’ll never get to sleep tonight.”

“Still riding the high from the afternoon?”

I couldn’t help but giggle. “Something like that.”

I stood there watching the coffee percolate. It filled up the pot, and what I expected wasn’t quite what happened. He picked up the steaming hot coffee pot and popped off the plastic lid. He tipped the damn thing up to his lips, and I reached out to try and stop him.

“Voss! You’re gonna burn yourself!”

But, as I watched him chug that pot of coffee down, he didn’t wince. He didn’t growl. He didn’t fucking flinch. Piping hot, steam rising from his mouth while he chugged it back, and not once did he howl in pain or anything. My jaw hit the floor with shock. His Adam’s apple bobbed with every glug he took until the goddamn pot was completely empty.

Then he set it back down on his coffee maker and turned the thing off. “Ready?”

Somehow, I found my words. “How the fuck did?—?”

He turned to me with a wicked grin on his face. “You still have a lot to learn about us.”

I blinked. “Yeah, that much is for certain.”

He barked with laughter before heading to his front door. “Come. I’ve got something I want to show you.”

I scurried to catch up with him. “Are you super strong, or something?”

He smirked. “Or something.”

“Voss, come on,” I pouted softly as we started across the compound. “Can you tell me? Please?”

He chuckled. “You beg so sweetly, I’m almost considering it.”

I nudged him playfully. “Please, Voss? Please? Pretty, pretty please?”

He barked again as a smile crossed his face. “Just shut that mouth and come on.”

He took my hand before we disappeared into the woods, and we crossed over the stream where I had to pause and stare at that rock. Even after weeks, some of the blood stains from Angela still persisted against the side of that rock where we had essentially bled her dry into the fucking river.

“Come on,” Voss hummed lowly in my ear, “it’s okay not to look.”

I diverted my gaze as Voss scooped me up into his arms. As if I weighed nothing, he crossed the river with me cradled against him, and I tucked my face into the crook of his neck. Maybe it was the wine, or maybe it was the fact that I felt more relaxed than I did in fucking months. But, I just couldn’t look at that rock. Call me weak. Call me a bitch. Call me whatever. I just couldn’t look at it.

“It’s okay, I got you,” Voss whispered as he crossed the stream and set me back down onto my feet. “You okay?”

I drew in a deep breath and forced myself to keep my gaze forward. “Let’s just keep walking.”

“Of course.”

We meandered our way through the woods in silence for a little while. So long, in fact, that the sun already set by the time we wound our way up a mountain. Or a very big hill. I honestly wasn’t sure which one it was. But, the barely-there trail that wound us all the way to the top came with the most spectacular view I’d ever seen.

“Oh. My. God,” I whispered.

It felt like we were on top of the world. As I stood there, perched at the top of the mountain precipice, the navy-blue sky filled with millions of stars hung over the forest outstretched before us. The Milky Way galaxy was visible, and I gawked at its glory.

“I’ve never seen it before,” I whispered to myself.

“I see it every night I come up here,” Voss muttered.

I leaned my head against his chest. I didn’t say a word, either. I simply couldn’t. The wind kicked up, rustling the trees as they all seemed to blow in the same general direction. The stars twinkled above our heads and our heavy galaxy sat crystal clear in the sky over our heads. Crickets began their rhythmic chirping while cicadas off in the distance screamed from the trees beneath us.

And it wasn’t until I looked over at Voss that I found him staring intently at me.

“Aren’t you gonna look at the view?” I asked.

“I am.”

My cheeks blushed with his words before his face grew serious, commanding my attention as his piercing green eyes held my stare. “Vampires and shifters have been enemies for centuries, Bexley.”

My shoulders slumped a bit. “Do you really want to ruin this moment with that kind of talk?”

He stepped a bit closer to me and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “The point I’m trying to make is that whatever you may believe about what’s going on, you are expendable to them.”

“To… vampires?”

His hand slipped around and cupped the back of my head. “Yes.”

“Oh.”

He closed the distance between our bodies as his hand seemed to engulf the back of my head. “But, you’re not expendable to me. And whatever I have to do in order to keep you safe is exactly what I’ll do. Nothing more, and certainly nothing less. No matter how much it pisses you off.”

I swallow hard. “The interrogation tactics.”

He nodded slowly as the heat grew between us. “Yes, among other things.”

“Other things?” I asked breathlessly.

His forehead touched down against mine. “You are my mate, darling. For better and for worse. And I won’t ever let anything happen to you, no matter what it might make you think of me.”

My lower lip quivered. “I understand.”

He slid his thumb along my lower lip, and his soft touch silenced its quivering.

“There we go,” he whispered.

“Voss,” I whispered back.

“Hmmmm?”

I tilted my lips ever so slightly up toward his. “You promise that you’re not just torturing those vampires in that cave of yours?”

He paused. “I can say that we didn’t torture that one.”

“Jesus,” I said breathlessly, turning my head.

His free hand gripped my cheeks and turned my stare back to his. “I love the fact that you hate that shit.”

I blinked. “What?”

His thumb traced my lower lip once more. “I love the fact that you hate what we do in that cave. I love the fact that nothing we can say or do will ever sway you. Your moral code is one of the soundest things I’ve ever come across, and it makes you fucking beautiful, Bexley.”

Tears lined my eyes. “You… you think so?”

He captured my lips in the softest kiss imaginable.

“Oh,” I sighed softly.

“I know so,” his voice rumbled.

I fluttered my gaze up to his green stare and I couldn’t help myself. His voice enraptured me. His form towered over me. His muscles called to me, and the way his words stroked my heart made my soul come alive. Electricity filled my veins as I stood to my tiptoes, pressing my lips back to his. His free arm immediately snatched me up by my waist, wrapping around me as his other hand continued to cup the back of my head. He picked me up from my feet as if I were nothing but an egg out of a carton. His tongue pushed forth, parting my lips as my head tilted off to the side. He held me against him, cradling me like I was some precious porcelain doll. And as his mouth invaded mine, I allowed him to transport me.

“Bexley,” he growled down the back of my throat.

I finally brought my legs up and wrapped them around him. “Voss, please.”

He sucked on my lower lip. “Mmmm, I love it when you beg.”

I rolled my hips against him as my arms draped around his neck. “Take me. Please. I—I need you.”

And to my shock, he shook his head as he sucked on my lower lip. It pulled a confused moan from the back of my throat that made him chuckle, bumping his chest against mine.

“Why not?” I asked breathlessly as his lips trailed along my pulse point.

“Because,” he said as his voice rumbled against my shoulder. He kissed my bare skin softly, sending goosebumps fleeing across my skin. “I want to celebrate the autumn solstice buried in you.”

His words made me whimper as I squeezed my thighs around him.

“So give me three days, darling,” he whispered against the shell of my ear. “Give me three days of you doing nothing but staring me down from across the compound, and I’m all yours.”

I picked up my head, sealing our deal with a crashed kiss to his lips, and he held me close against him. I felt him starting down the mountain, jumping from rock to rock to get us down safely. I clung to him, our tongues intertwined as his body seemed to move without sight. Without the need to look at what he was doing. He was phenomenal. They all were. And as I clung to him, feeling him carrying me back to the compound, our lips never left his.

Until we emerged from the woods, and I had to act like my gut wasn’t going to be absolutely sore from need by the time the solstice came around.