“There’s going to come a time where you will want to be locked in a romantic cabin alone with me.”
She laughed. “You think this place is romantic? You’ve got to be shitting me. It smells like raw meat left out in the sun and drizzled with cat droppings.”
He bent over, pushing his nose at the spot on her neck just under her ear. “It smells like peaches and cream to me.”
She pressed both hands on the table and slowly closed her eyes. Every nerve ending in her body awakened, sending signals to places she didn’t want this man to have any control over. The incident in college had changed how she dealt with men and their advances. If she wasn’t totally in control, making all the sexual decisions, it was a no-go.
With Dayton, she didn’t think she’d ever have control. She wanted to tilt her neck, giving him better access to nibble on her earlobe. If she were bolder, she’d take his hand and place it over her breast, pushing her hard nipple against his palm.
Her chest rose as she heaved in a deep breath. Her lungs burned with desire.
“I will never hurt you.” Dayton pulled back. “You have to believe me.”
“I don’t,” she admitted. The flashing of what looked like little firecrackers floating from the book had stopped, so she reached for it again. “Right now, you’re the only one who would have killed Ralph.”
“I didn’t kill him.”
“Then who did?” The book fell open, and the pages flipped by themselves. Things were just getting weirder and weirder. “Because Ralph’s body was torn up by fangs the size of yours.”
“There are wolves that are close to my size.” Dayton headed toward the kitchen.
She was happy to have some space between them. “Not on this farm. And the largest I’ve ever seen is my father, and he’s still not as big as you.”
“What about a shape-shifter? How many of those do you having living on the farm?”
“None living on the farm right now. Chaz thought it best to keep those coming and going to a limit until we know the Wolfairies and Royals can use their magic off the property.”
“A Marrok-shifter could pose as anything for extended periods of time,” Dayton said as he opened and closed the fridge before rummaging through the cabinets.
She could have told him that all they had were some protein bars, bread, and peanut butter and jelly, but she rather enjoyed him being in a different space.
“Everyone on this farm is family. Or members of the pack or the Twilight Crossing Council, and the fairies that came to us early on. A Marrok-shifter would have shown it’s true self by now.”
The pages in the book stopped moving, so she took it in her hands.
“Not if they are consuming the blood of the creatures they are becoming. Did you ever think that maybe someone posing as a werewolf killed Ralph to pose as me?” Dayton finally found the sandwich-making material and slathered massive amounts of peanut butter and grape jelly on the bread.
Her stomach growled.
“I’m thinking that maybe then you are a Marrok-shifter.”
Dayton set a couple of sandwiches on a plate in the center of the table. He shoved one of them in his mouth. Whole. He chewed and swallowed and chewed and swallowed some more. Shoving a finger into his mouth, he licked it clean.
“Yep. You are a Marrok-shifter because they have no manners whatsoever.”
“I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that.” With a little too much gusto, Dayton spun one of the chairs, straddling it. He reached under hers and yanked her closer. “It makes perfect sense, if they know I’m about to be born.”
“But no one knows about you because there is nothing written about you.”
He tapped her temple. “You’re a smart woman. I don’t think you need me to tell you that perhaps you just haven’t found what has been written about me. The visionary lied about a few things, as did my father, and I’m sure there were more lies and deception all in the name of protecting the future.”
She tried to swallow the gasp that flicked against the back of her throat. Gerri Wilder’s words bounced about inside her head.
“Child. I don’t know how to tell you this, but either your mate is dead, or he hasn’t been born yet.”
“You weren’t born. You just became. Of course, you could have eaten Norse to take on his essence, and now you’re just waiting until Coral’s magic fades and you can go kill my family.”
“You really have to stop this nonsense.” He tapped the book. “Read the passage it just showed you.”
“Have you read it?” she asked, pursing her lips.
He cocked his head with a smirkish grin. “Have you seen my dust snag the wisdom from the pages and fill my mind with it?”
“Smartass,” she mumbled. “The Wolfairy Queen. The truth behind the myth,” Cheryl read the words out loud. “I found a few paintings that we’ve decided are visions of the future when Chaz’s son, Finn, takes over as Alpha and his fated becomes the queen. It appears as though his fated is a Royal Fairy, but we don’t know that for sure.”
“You could be looking at drawings from the past, and not the future.”
He had a point, but she wasn’t about to let him know that, so she decided to keep reading. “I spent the majority of my childhood with witches, but not the good kind. They call themselves the Circle of the Sacred.” Cheryl lifted her gaze from the pages. “The Circle of the Sacred is not a coven that is recognized by Twilight Crossing.”
“Why not?” Dayton stared at her with questioning eyes. It concerned her how much he knew, which made her wonder what his real intentions were.
“They practice black magic.” She tore her gaze from his and focused back on the
