“Where do I fit in?” The words were spoken in a hushed and vulnerable tone. A tone that had his chest constricting and body weakening as he knelt down in front of her.
Taking her hands in his and bringing them up to his lips to kiss the backs, he looked her in the eye and said, “You fit in wherever you are. There’s no one like you, Ravyn. No one as tough and at the same time as compassionate as you. No one as loyal or as intelligent. No one else I’d rather walk into this battle with.”
She didn’t speak at first, but her fingers tightened over his.
“I don’t know how to do this. I don’t know what I’m expected to do.”
“I don’t know either. What I do know is that when the time comes, you’ll step up and do what’s necessary.”
“What makes you so sure of that?”
“Because that’s what I do,” he admitted. “Theo can make all the plans he wants and we can go out and execute those plans to perfection, but when it really comes down to it, we all act on instinct. What the mind inside us says we should do to save people, to save ourselves.”
She let loose a nervous giggle.
“I’m going to need you to print all of this on some cue cards for me until I get used to it.”
Steele chuckled with her, relief washing over him the moment he saw her smile.
“You won’t need them,” he said. “But you will need this.”
Releasing her hands he reached under the bed and pulled out the locked box. Using his fingerprint to unlock it, he picked up the bundle of green material and handed it to her.
“Back at the Towers you said you needed something.”
She pressed her palms to her cheeks and then her forehead, taking a deep breath and then releasing it. “I felt like I did, like I was missing something and my body craved it.”
“You still feel like that now?”
She narrowed her eyes and said, “Not as intense, but yeah, I do.”
He unwrapped the dagger and held it out to her.
“Pick it up,” he said. “Hold the hilt in the palm of your hand.”
For a moment he wasn’t sure she was going to do it, probably because he’d told her to and Ravyn could be as stubborn as she was smart. But she did finally lower her right hand, flexing her fingers before placing them over the hilt of the dagger. She closed her eyes for a few seconds, her lips moving as if she were saying something to herself, before she opened her eyes and grabbed the hilt as he’d instructed.
Bright golden light glowed instantly. Her left hand shook but she brought it over to pull the sheath away from the dagger, dropping it onto the bed. Now the blade gleamed too. The light was so bright it cast Ravyn’s face in a brilliant shadow. She held the blade with both hands down, bringing it up over her head and then down as if she was going to stab it into something or someone.
“This is your power, Ravyn. It’s yours to wield and yours to grow.”
Steele backed up when she stood and began swinging the dagger as if it were a sword, moving it over her head, turning and wielding it behind her back. Her body moved with the flow, legs apart, feet twisting, legs together as she jabbed forward, turned and jabbed in the other direction. She looked elegant and powerful, sexy and dangerous. Her hair swung around the side of her face, covering one eye when she faced him again. The glow was all over her, causing her skin to shimmer with the power that was flowing through her.
There was no doubt she was the Chosen and she was the only woman Steele and his beast had ever desired.
His hands came around her waist just as she turned away from him. Ravyn’s heart was pounding but she couldn’t help it, the moment she touched that dagger she’d felt instantly alive. As if for the past thirty years she’d been in some sort of sleep state and now she was fully awake.
Her fingers were no longer tingling, arms weren’t shaking and she didn’t feel sick at all. There was nothing but raw power coursing through her veins, flowing directly to her heart. She felt it in every step she took, and with every powerful thrust of the knife. Her body was alive in a way it had never been before and there was no doubt that she was who they said she was. In these moments she was more than proud of that fact.
But now he was touching her and the power shifted slightly, like it was moving over to make room for something else she craved. Ravyn leaned back into him, her fingers still tight on the dagger.
He flattened his hands over her stomach and rubbed through her clothes, sending waves of desire coursing through her. Down he went, pushing beneath the band of her jeans until the button popped free and the zipper made a ragged cry on its way down. Steele kept pushing. She felt like he’d been doing that since the first day she’d seen him. Pushing her, easing her into a place where he could have her, where he could touch her and defend her and usher her into this new world. To control her? No, he wasn’t in charge here at this very moment. She was making the choice. She was deciding to own who and what she was for her completion and validation, not anyone else’s.
She whispered his name just as his hand slipped beneath her panties, easing down over her juncture until his fingers were pressing softly through her warm folds. He found
