Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 49459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 247(@200wpm)___ 198(@250wpm)___ 165(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 49459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 247(@200wpm)___ 198(@250wpm)___ 165(@300wpm)
I shot him a glare, and he held up his hands in mock surrender. “Just saying”
Leave it to Tavish to try and be a douche and lighten the situation.
“Leave him be,” Caelan said, his voice carrying the weight of authority he thought he had over us because he was now a mated male. He glanced at me, his eyes narrowing slightly.
I didn’t respond, focusing on the rhythm of the weights, the strain and release, the ache that dulled everything else.
But Aisling was always on my mind, and it was getting under my skin.
Tavish watched me, and I hated that he seemed to see through the wall I had around myself.
“I heard her standing up tae ye. On more than one occasion,” Tavish said suddenly, his tone filled with amusement. “That’s what this is about, isn’t it? The little servant girl with the fire in her eyes who isn’t putting up with yer shit?”
My grip on the bar tightened, my muscles screaming in protest as I pushed through another set and stayed silent.
“Drop it, Tavish,” Caelan warned, but his gaze lingered on me, thoughtful and too perceptive for my liking.
“She’s nothing,” I lied too easily, or maybe not. Maybe they could see right through my bullshit?
But even as I said it, I knew the hard truth. Aisling wasn’t nothing. She was something. Something that unsettled me. Something that made me hope would stir my wolf. Even though my beast stayed silent, my curiosity of her had to mean something monumental.
And I hated it because I didn’t understand it.
By the time I finished, my muscles were trembling, my body pushed to the brink of exhaustion, and I was drenched in sweat. But despite the hardcore workout, the restless energy remained, coiling in my chest like a living thing.
I thought I was alone, Tavish and Caelan having left right before I’d finished, but I sensed someone behind me as I cleaned off the machine.
“She’s under yer skin,” Tavish said, and I tensed, not responding.
I didn’t dignify him with a response, just turned and stalked out of the gym but not before I heard his lingering words.
“And I’m glad, brother. I’m glad ye’re feeling something again.”
As I climbed the stairs back to my chambers, I cursed my fate. I cursed the fact a little Lycan servant made me feel anything at all.
But deep down, in the part of me I refused to acknowledge, I longed for the next time our paths would cross.
4
AISLING
Iscrubbed the stone floor of the corridor harder than I needed to, my fingers raw from the brush. Not because the floor was dirty but because I couldn’t stop thinking about him.
Lennox.
The massive Lycan male who acted like a brute and glared at everyone and everything like he wanted to kill them.
The male who stalked the halls like he was out for blood.
And yet… I saw through it.
Weeks had passed with silent glances, under the breath growls, and me holding my tongue when I wanted to snap at him for his crass attitude.
And despite all reason, despite all common sense, my inner she-wolf stirred every time he looked at me. But my mating heat didn’t awaken. The need to be with my mate didn’t roar within me.
Not fully. Not in the way that I knew it should when you found your fated mate.
But something in me twisted, pulled tight, like it knew something I didn’t.
I scrubbed for another minute before sitting back on my heels and brushing the sweat from my forehead with the back of my hand. I let out a slow breath, hating that I thought about Lennox so much.
Hated how, even when he snarled in frustration, my body responded like it wanted to inch closer to, stand next to, climb on top of Lennox. And that was a feeling I’d never experienced before. Because as a Lycan, I had zero desire to be with another being until I found my fated mate.
But Lennox didn’t just look broken—he carried it in the way he walked, the way his gaze shuttered like he couldn’t bear to be seen. And yet, when he stared at me… I felt like he saw me.
And it was the first time I felt like I was truly seen.
I reached for the bucket and stood, shaking my head because I hadn’t been able to get Lennox out of my head. “Pathetic,” I muttered to myself. “Ye’re becoming obsessed over a male who snarls and growls at ye at every opportunity.”
I thought about the scars that littered his body, ones he tried to hide. They were the kind of wounds that didn’t just mark his skin—they lived deep in his soul. I could see that much when I looked into his blue eyes.
And gods help me, but I ached to try and reach him… like really help him find that happiness I knew he had somewhere deep down.