Letting go of my wrists, Max scraped his hands down my sides, over my hips, and gripped the back of my thighs. With one effortless motion, he hoisted me up and settled himself between my legs. I wrapped my arms around his neck, back arching into him when the stubble on his chin scraped against my neck.
Behind his back, I saw the mess of abandoned food and startled. “Hey!” Pulling back, I looked into his dancing eyes that had gone completely gold. “You’re supposed to eat first!”
Wicked. That smile was wicked as he said, “Are you sure that’s what you want?”
He started striding into the bedroom with me still wrapped around his waist. And he made good on his promise that I would be more than happy to surrender to an alpha.
46
I woke to the sound of mini-explosions and shot out of bed. My elbow hit Max’s chin, the pain much more acute for me. Scrambling around in the dark, I grabbed his T-shirt and hauled it over my head as I ran through the house.
“Sophie! What the hell?”
He came barging out of the front door after me but came to a halt when he saw me standing in the garden bed at the front of the house, while all around me, dozens of Sophie flowers burst open in a miniature display of fireworks in all the colours of the rainbow. I’d planted them and cheated a little to get them to bloom quickly. Lex would have been severely disappointed with me for using Fae magic. But that didn’t take away from the moment of pure amazement as the flowers she had created for me put on a display more incredible than anything Gaia might have constructed herself.
I smiled at that. Perversely, Lex and Gaia had a pretty frosty relationship. I imagined our deity wouldn’t be very pleased if she knew about these plants. After the last of the display died down, the flowers scattered seeds everywhere and the heads withered.
Max was leaning against the veranda, his chest glistening from sweat in the moonlight. “What the heck kind of plant did she make?” he said.
“The Sophie kind. You know the kind that is pretty and sweet until it explodes in your face.” I grinned at him, and he shook his head, amusement in his eyes. At the time, Lex had said it was a representation of my prowess in the Potions lab. I suspected she might have been making some kind of point.
As the excitement began to subside, the cold settled on my skin. “Come inside,” Max said when he saw me shiver.
I shook my head, suddenly rooted to the spot. “Sophie?” A pause. “We’ll find them.”
It was a testament to the accuracy of the link that he knew where my thoughts lay. When my mind tried to assure me that that was exactly why he would die, the link pushed back against it. Right now, I had other problems to contend with. When it looked like I wouldn’t be going anywhere, Max stepped into the bed and grabbed me.
But rather than force me into the house, he sat down in the dirt and set me on his lap. How he’d managed to get his jeans on so quickly was beyond me. “Talk to me,” he said.
I laid my head on his chest, feeling torn in two directions. “Don’t get angry, okay?”
His brows knitted together. “No deal.”
“Max!”
“You can’t start a conversation with ‘don’t get angry’ and expect me to agree with it.”
“Well, then I guess we’re not having this conversation!”
“Sophie.” I didn’t say a word. He huffed. “Fine. I’ll try. But no promises.”
That was truly as good as I was going to get. “I was supposed to help her,” I said, feeling my throat beginning to close over. “She asked me for help. And instead of focusing on the mission, I went and got myself mated and denied what I am without achieving anything. I hate that I’m so weak.”
I thought the growl that snapped out at me was his reaction to my comment about the mating, but when I looked into his eyes, they were ringed in gold and looking at me like I was deranged. “Do you want to know what strength is?” he asked me.
Mesmerised by the intent in those eyes, I nodded.
“After Kai’s family were murdered, I wanted to go after Jacob and the demons. Kai and I were ready to go hunting when the Council got in his ear about being the last of his line. He was so pissed, I knew he wanted to just leave in the middle of the night. I was young and too stupid to understand how to keep a lid on my own feelings. But Kai chose to stay, even though he hated every second of it. Not only that, he agreed to a bond with Chanelle for the good of the Nephilim. When we got older, he decided to join the Academy, even though as the last remaining Nephilim of his line, there was absolutely zero expectation for him to attend school. He did it because he wanted to show everyone that integration was a necessity. He did it for Jacqueline and Cassie.
“I ribbed him mercilessly about it until I realised how much the pressure of being Malachi Pendragon was killing him. And still he stayed. At any time, he could have pulled the plug on it all and nobody could or would have said a thing. But he didn’t. Not until Lex arrived and changed everything.
“You bit your tongue for your whole childhood to make other people happy. Noah treated you like shit for years and you hardly complained. The whole Academy shunned you, and even after you saved their lives and got no thanks for it, you didn’t let it make you bitter. Your best friend is just about the most reckless, loud-mouthed little shit on the planet, and you stick by her side no
