I blinked. Actually, the more I stared, the more it appeared that she was actually glowing just the faintest bit.
Placing her hand back on the sheets, I bent over and did a comparison. My skin tone was too dark for an objective test. Beside the buttercream colour of the sheets, the glow was less noticeable, but it was definitely still there.
“What the hell?” I said to myself. Sadly, the longer I looked, the more the glow seemed to fade, until I couldn’t be sure if I had imagined it for the sake of some kind of epiphany. I wasn’t sure how long I sat there, but somebody knocked on the door.
Sandra poked her head in. “Doc says it’s time for you to go,” she said. “You’re wearing yourself out and you don’t have the strength for that.”
“I do so!” But she stood there stubbornly until I got off my butt and left.
Truthfully, I just wanted to be away from the Reserve as much as possible. Even though I had promised to stay, following through had been harder than I expected. It really was the silence that would eventually kill me.
That was until I stepped through the portal and almost ran right into Max’s chest. Jumping back like I’d been scalded, I knocked into someone who had come through the portal behind me. My nose caught hints of pungent spices and decadent chocolate.
For a second, I locked gazes with him. My heart hammered in my chest as my brain took a snapshot of him and gaped. Worry curled a cold fist around my throat. Though his eyes were diamond-hard, the rest of him seemed...I couldn’t put my finger on it...the closest thing I could compare it to was that turning point when a flower went past its peak beauty and began to fade. There were dark purple bruises under his eyes. I swallowed, thinking of the last time I’d seen a change this drastic. It had been when I’d seen the other alphas in the Cabin.
“Pardon me,” the woman behind me said. There was a note of amusement in her voice. It was familiar.
“Sorry,” I said. Thinking that she was the less controversial of the two to confront, I turned around, and my heart seized. It was the woman who had come to the Thompsons’ to gift him with that enchanted apple. She had the kind of hourglass figure that made the plain white T-shirt and khaki cargo pants she wore appear over-revealing. Let out of their tight braids, her hair was a curly mane around a sculptural face highlighted by silvery cat’s-eye makeup and mocha-toned lips. There were metallic-purple swirls painted over her temple and down the side of her neck where they disappeared behind a sweep of her hair. For a second, I imagined Max brushing the hair on her nape aside to discover where those swirls might come to a stop.
There was no need to glance inside at the mating link to know that it was churning again. I felt acid bubbling in my gut and fought to contain my reaction.
She cocked her head to the side. “Do we know each other?” The twist of her lips said she knew exactly where she’d seen me.
Maintaining eye contact even though she was much taller, I returned her smile and even tried to inject some warmth into it. “I think I’ve seen you around. Excuse me, I’m running late.”
Making sure I kept my attention on the ground, I walked away as steadily as I could. Gwen’s words rang in my ear.
“You won’t make a sound if he decides he wants to get into bed with every female in supernatural society.” He didn’t need to get into bed with all of them. Just one was enough to make my head spin out of control. But the jealousy, though oppressive, was secondary to the other thing pressing down on my chest.
Knowing that Max was occupied, I found myself making my way to the Thompsons’. Halfway there, I caught myself. Where did I get off worrying about him now? I had no right to even think of him.
Turning on my heel, I spun around and went straight back to Laila’s house. I then proceeded to pace around their spare room until well into the night. Somebody knocked on the door. “Sophie, honey,” Laila said. “You’re in a house with a shifter. We don’t have dampening spells here.”
Right. “Sorry.”
Sleep was impossible. Not wanting to disturb Hank with my loud stomping, I snuck out the front door and walked absentmindedly towards the Cabin. Knowing that there was no way I’d be allowed close, I lingered in the distance and stood squinting at it, thinking I could somehow penetrate its walls with my vision.
Be careful what you wished for. I did a doubletake as a figure emerged from the glass doors of the Cabin. From the posture and the breadth of his shoulders, I figured it was a male. He walked with too steady a gait to be one of the alphas.
The perimeter of the Cabin was ringed in a flat grass lawn that spanned a diameter of almost five hundred metres. It was deliberately set up that way to ensure nothing could sneak up on the Cabin without it being spotted by the guards on the ground, in the trees, or in the air. I didn’t even bother to try and hide. But as the figure drew closer, a smile tugged at my lips.
“Sophie!” Professor Mortimer waved. I took it as permission to step onto the lawn. When
