Then he placed me on his mattress and whispered, “Sleep, Little Bird.”
Without curtains, the room was bathed in sunlight. I kept my jeans on and Logan grabbed a pair of clean white socks from his drawer and pulled them up to my knees.
Silent hours drifted by while I slept. In my dream, I remembered being in warm, crystal-blue waters. I was sitting in a shallow area with the sun on my shoulders, listening to the waves lap up on the shore. Just a little ways up the beach, Logan was sitting on the sand with his knees bent and his arms draped over them. He wore a thin white shirt and his jeans were rolled up at the ankle. A smile stretched across his face and he turned away to look at the ocean. Logan was not a figment of my imagination—he was dreamwalking. I’d once warned him to stay out of my head while I slept, but suddenly, I didn’t mind. He respected my space and watched over me from a safe distance.
I wanted it to be real. No rules. No conflict. No politics. No prejudices. No death. Just the two of us, lying in a hammock, falling asleep in each other’s arms as the clouds drifted quietly overhead.
When I awoke, Logan was standing in front of the curtainless window, watching the colors of sunset melt across the horizon. A light tap sounded at the door and Logan opened it, taking a tray from someone’s hands. He set it beside me on the floor because his bed was nothing more than a wide mattress without a frame.
“Stay in bed,” he insisted.
“Did I sleep all day?” I mumbled against a pillow.
Logan crawled into the bed and laid on my right side. He had changed into a pair of sweats and a white, formfitting undershirt. The cut emphasized the tight muscles in his arms and shoulders.
“My feet are hot.”
He sat up and tossed my socks into a corner. “Do you want to remove these?” he asked, tugging my jeans.
“No.”
His nose twitched and he took in two quick puffs of air. “I’m not sure of that scent.”
“What do you mean?”
“The one you put out whenever I ask to remove your jeans. It’s not fear, it’s not… it’s like a flavor I haven’t tasted before and I need the name of it.”
“Speaking of flavors, what did you bring me to eat?”
A mysterious grin crossed his expression and he rolled over. When he reappeared, an egg roll was between his fingers.
“Chinese,” I said approvingly. My stomach growled and I sat up, propping the pillows behind my back as Logan set the tray on my lap. My appetite wasn’t all there, so after a few bites of chicken stir-fry, I announced I was finished.
“You take good care of me, Logan. It was delicious.”
He placed the tray on the floor and I scooted down, stretching my legs. The room seemed uncomfortably warm, so I swept my hair off my neck and pulled the sheet away.
Logan gave me the infamous Cross smile and waved a small sugared donut in his hand. My heart soared. It wasn’t just a memory that we shared of the time we met, but hand-feeding was a sign of trust among Chitahs.
When I opened my mouth and took a small bite, he tossed the donut back on the plate and kissed away the sugar from my lips.
“Logan?”
“Yes?”
“If you have a new mate, you need to take what’s best for you, not what you crave. I don’t want to be your drug. Does that make sense?”
“I didn’t know what I was saying, Silver. I had no idea,” he said in somber words. “Charmed by a Vampire or not, I should have trusted my instincts. It will end tonight when I call to break it off.”
“That seems a little cold.”
He rubbed his eye with the palm of his hand. “She only coveted my position, not my heart. That was made clear when we spoke privately. I want you to know that I never bedded that female; it is not the courting custom.” His eyes immediately lowered, heavy with guilt.
“Except with us,” I said, stating the obvious. “It wasn’t fair for me to push it that far when I wasn’t ready to commit.”
“It never felt right with her and now I know why. I’m not a man who will settle as long as my soul mate walks this earth. It will end tonight when I call to break the news.”
“Do you actually believe that? Logan…”
His fingers fell over my lips. “I don’t believe it. I know it. I swore I’d never enter your dreams without permission, but the night you cut my hair, I needed to know. I felt your grief, but it was confusing and you couldn’t see me. You sat in a pile of white weeds of some kind with a disparaged look on your face.”
“I don’t remember that,” I said, watching his eyes lower.
“I kissed your cheek and whispered in your ear that I’d always come for you if you needed me, Silver. I meant it.”
“Can you ever trust me again?” I reached for the plate and took a fresh donut, holding it up. Logan caught my wrist and parted his lips, taking the entire pastry into his mouth along with two of my fingers, sucking every granule of sugar from them.
Logan had allowed me to feed him.
He trusted me.
“I’ll eat a steady diet of whatever you feed me from your hand, Little Raven. I’ll prove that I’m worthy of your trust, loyalty, and your love. Maybe it’ll take decades, but I’m a patient man. Nothing has changed between us. You’re still the same beautiful woman I watched sleeping in that cave the night I took you. You fed a stranger and welcomed him into your home. You fought bravely against me and aren’t afraid to speak your mind.”
“Logan,” I softly breathed. The room darkened with only the beam of light from the hall slicing across the bed from the open door. “You have all these customs of courting and mating, and it’s all so elaborate. We don’t have the equivalent, but you know about our bonding ceremony?”
He gently nodded.
“The woman has the Creator’s mark from her partner permanently inked on her.”
Logan watched me pensively. “Are you denying my claim?”
“I did something and um… I can’t take it back.”
“You did what you had to do, Silver. You were forced into it,” he said, softly stroking my hair.
“Not everything.”
All expression fell from his face as his eyes flicked back and forth between my eyes and mouth. I rolled over and stood up. “Turn your head away, Logan.”
From his seat on the bed, he looked over his shoulder as I began removing my jeans.
“It isn’t fair for you to be in the dark, so I want to tell you everything.” I stepped out of my pants and kicked them to the side. “I never liked Tarek. In the restaurant, he threw his scent all over me to confuse you and I played along. I said those things to hurt you, Logan. Things I can’t take back, but I was afraid. It killed me to be so cruel; especially knowing those words would never be erased from your memory. Then Tarek announced his intention to marry me and things spiraled out of control.”
Logan rubbed his mouth and averted his eyes. “I plotted to kill him in the beginning, Silver. Something I didn’t tell you. Leo was the only one who kept me from carrying out the act; it’s why I followed you. I planned to murder him and I didn’t give a damn if that meant receiving a death sentence. Then I remembered the promise that I made to you—that I would be a better man than that.” He closed his eyes. “I believed everything you said to me in the restaurant and when you cut off my hair… fuck, it killed me,” he breathed in hurt words.
“Look at me, Logan.”
He lifted his eyes to mine. I stood before him in nothing but a T-shirt and the truth.
“I don’t know how you truly feel about me after all that’s happened between us,” I said, cupping his chin. “Or if enough time has passed for the gravity of this to sink in. You forgive me tonight, but who’s to say a week from now you’ll feel the same? I could be talking to another man and you’d remember what I did, or almost did. We can’t erase what’s been done.”
“I trust you emphatically, Little Raven,” he said in a resolute voice. But his angry words cut sharp and rose in v
olume. “Those who sacrifice for another among my kind are revered. That bastard tried to take your respect, your honor, and your modesty. He got his comings, and I will sleep soundly for the rest of my life knowing he died by my hands.”
“For Katrina. That was a long time coming,” I said.
Logan shook his head slowly. “For you. I had no thought in my head of Katrina when I challenged Tarek. I couldn’t allow him to take you,” he growled.
My heart fluttered. I knew Logan was devoted to a fault, but part of me suspected he was looking for an opportunity to avenge his mate. It didn’t make sense that after everything that happened he would want to risk his life for me.
“You’re always coming to my rescue. Someday, Logan Cross, I’m going to be the one to save your life.”
He tilted his head and kissed the palm of my hand. “You already have.”
“There’s one thing Tarek couldn’t take. He may have eventually broken me down in the coming years, but there was one thing he’d never have, Logan. My heart. Ask me why.”
Logan’s cheeks reddened. I’d never seen that coloring on him before and I knew it was because he didn’t have a sense of what was about to come. “Why?” he asked nervously.
“Because it’s already yours. It’s always been yours, Logan.”
I slowly lifted my shirt, revealing the cheetah paw prints—with claws—on my lower abdomen.
The look on his face was unreadable. His brows knitted together and awe filled his expression. I nervously watched as Logan brushed his fingers across my skin, as if he were trying to rub off the permanent marks with his initials in the center.
“Sealed with liquid fire,” I confirmed.
The way he looked at me made my heart stutter. A thrumming vibrated deep within his chest.
Logan was purring.
“Giving you up made me realize how much I really wanted you. Maybe that’s a selfish way to go about things, but I was always afraid that you’d eventually hurt me, or leave me. We can’t escape life unscathed, and I tried so hard to protect myself from getting hurt that it only isolated me. If you still want to claim me, then I’m ready to tell you my answer,” I said, brushing my hand apprehensively through his short hair. Logan’s face pressed against my lower belly and his fingers lightly traced over the tattoos. “Maybe it’s too late, maybe it’s not the right one, but the answer is yes.”
Logan pulled me onto his lap. I placed my tear-stained cheek against his shoulder and he lifted my chin with the crook of his finger.
“I will love you so sweetly,” he whispered, drinking me in with his eyes. “I give you my word that I will care for you, protect you, love you, and die for you, my female. You may have doubts about my claim on you as a kindred spirit, but doubt no more. My eyes may not know all of you, but my heart does. I loved you before I was born, and I will love you long after I pass from this earth.”
Logan’s kiss fell upon my lips reverently, adoringly, and as far as I was concerned, could stay there forever. I turned away from the intensity of his gaze and Logan tethered his fingers around my chin, holding my face still.
“I still make you blush,” he marveled in a soft breath, the corners of his mouth hooking into a smile.
“I’ll blush for as long as you love me.”
We talked for hours beneath the sheets. I wept in his arms without explanation, and he held me protectively close. I wanted that night to last forever before going back to my life. I wanted to carry that moment in my pocket and never let it go. I wanted to tell the world how much I loved Mr. Cross.
Logan would occasionally crawl down the length of my body, resting his head on my leg or stomach. Anywhere that would allow him to admire the tattoo. While we talked, he would kiss the paw prints and circle his finger around the edges. I had marked him as mine in the only way I knew how, since a Chitah did not have a Creator’s mark. His brothers may have carried the same initials, but the tattoo was in a private place that only his eyes would see.
I told him I preferred his hair shorter, and that growing it long had never held any sway in my decision.
I was always his.
My days of courtship with Logan were coming to an end. I had accepted his claim officially. It was bittersweet knowing that it was the end of one relationship and the beginning of another. But a fiercely possessive feeling came over me like I had never known before.
Logan was mine.
Chapter 29
Adam tucked himself away in the back corner of Northern Lights, a human bar located in the arts district. It had become his favorite hangout because of the relaxed atmosphere and stage performances. They promoted local talent with open mic night. The lights were always dim so that the bar and stage became the center of attention. It was a place Adam could sit back and sip his beer in peace.
It was a hell of a lot better than staying cooped up in the mansion; Novis only made public appearances when there was business to discuss.
Adam cupped his hand around the cigarette and lit up a smoke, blowing out a cloudy puff before snapping his lighter shut. He watched a group of men by the stage getting rowdy and whistling. Roxy Fox was on, and she usually brought the house down when she sang the number that ended with a few buttons popping free on her silk blouse. It wasn’t really that kind of place, but she gave enough of a tease that the drunkards forgot they weren’t in a strip club. Roxy had big brown curls that fell down her shoulders and she jutted her hips to the beat.
Adam’s cell phone went off and he checked the message.
Knox: Where are you, brother?
Adam: Having a beer. What’s up?
Knox: Shit’s going down. Get home and lay low.
Adam: Call me.
“Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for a new act.” The crowd applauded. “She’s new to Northern Lights, and… aww, come on, sweetheart. Don’t be shy. Looks like we got ourselves a wallflower!”
“I’ll pick that flower,” a man exclaimed, followed by a few laughs.
The announcer squinted and looked in the back of the room as the crowd anxiously whistled and hollered.
Adam’s phone rang and Knox blurted out, “Where the fuck are you?”
“Northern Lights. What the hell’s going on?”
“You’re in luck. We’re right around the corner; Sunny wanted to check out a shop down here. I’ll pick you up in five. Sit tight.”
The line went dead and Adam furrowed his brow. He had his bike, but if Knox wanted to ride together, it meant that a conversation needed to happen. That’s how Knox operated; he wasn’t into phone tag.
“Honey, they won’t bite,” the man on stage said dramatically. The crowd was getting restless. Adam crushed his cigarette in the ashtray and stood up, placing a few bills beneath an empty bottle.
He lifted his leather jacket from the back of the chair and slid his arms inside, zipping up the front. It was a good look for him. Dark denims, a plain T-shirt, and lace-up boots. He was low maintenance and preferred casual, despite the wardrobe that Novis supplied.
Adam swiped the keys from the table and when he spun around, he crashed into someone crossing his path.
“Oh, no!” a young woman shouted. Her acoustic guitar hit the floor with a melodic sound and several people turned around but didn’t move to help.
“Last chance,” the guy on stage coaxed, tapping his mic. The crowd booed and hissed.
The woman knelt down and flipped over her guitar, tracing her fingers along the neck, searching for damage. Her honey-blond hair was long and wavy with a small braid that wrapped around the back and tucked in somewhere. It held her hair away from the left side of her face, but several locks on the right side swept across her eye. Adam smiled at her outfit—brown boots with a white dress. Not the fashion statement he usually saw from the women in Cognito.
“It’s not broken.” She exhaled in relief. “Just a scratch, but this baby’s been through it all.”
“I’m sorry,” was all he could say. His body sti
ffened, waiting for her to lift her head and look up at him. Initial reactions were always the worst, but at least the humans got over it after a few stares.
But she just looked at his lace-ups. “Your boot has a long cut on the side,” she said, rubbing her finger along the groove. “You should get new shoes.”
Adam stared dumbly down at her. By the way she was crouched on the floor, it looked like she was hiding from someone. Her right hand continued to flip a red pick around in circles as she propped up her guitar, resting her forehead against the neck.
“Last chance to shake up the crowd,” the stage voice called out.
She blew out a breath and sprang forward—running past him like a soldier marching through the crowd.
Adam’s heart quickened as he admired the supreme way in which she threw her shoulders back and climbed on that stage. Her boots clicked on the wooden surface and a few men fell silent as she stood before them. She held the guitar upright and twirled it once by the neck.
The announcer looked her up and down before lifting a wooden stool and placing it in front of the microphone. The lights dimmed, leaving a spotlight that illuminated her wavy hair. “They’re all yours, sugar.”
Adam would have liked to hear her play.
But then a fist clutched his jacket and yanked him forward. It was Knox, dragging him through the building toward the front door.
“Get your ass moving,” he ground out through his teeth. “I had to leave Sunny in the car.”
Knox led the way with some of his wild black hair poking out from beneath his hat. They shouldered their way through the crowd that bottlenecked the hallway, but Knox was pretty much a bulldozer that cleared up that problem.
“Tell me what the hell is going on,” Adam demanded, grabbing Knox by his coat.
Knox eased around and in quiet words said, “Tarek attacked Silver.”
“That sonofabitch,” Adam growled. “Is she okay?”
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