"Didn't I tell you to start sleeping inside like a normal person?"
The peace that stole over her when he was near was really starting to irritate her. Especially since he was on her last nerve.
She didn't even bother to look his way when his voice came to her out of the dark.
Her courtship wasn't going according to plan.
He fought her tooth and nail. He only came around every couple of days. Just enough. As soon as she started to get itchy, as soon as she started feeling like something was missing, then he showed up.
She summoned him, but he didn't come. She sent him cute little messages, and he ignored her.
He only came around when he had to.
"I find it odd that you think a person sleeping outside isn't normal. Don't you do it all the time?"
"It's normal for a wolf. Not for a teenage girl who's prone to trouble."
It took everything she had to not go to him. It was her first instinct now. Her second was to touch him. Breathe him in.
The asshole.
Taking a deep breath, she wrapped her arms around her waist and looked up at the bells softly tinkling above her.
It was well past midnight, and the moon was hidden behind clouds. She couldn't see anything above her but the sounds of the bells and the leaves of her tree ruffling in the wind filled the night.
Her face was damp with tears.
Then he showed up. His warmth wrapping around her like a hug. Damn him.
He didn't come because of her tears. Her tears came and went these days. The only reason he was here is because he'd stayed away as long as he could.
Three seemed to be the magical number. He was strong enough to stay away for three days.
She wasn't as strong as him.
Or as stubborn.
Vallen made no sound as he moved to sit under her tree.
She turned her head to look at him, even though she wouldn't be able to see any of his features. She wanted to give him a tail. Or a forked tongue. But as she'd learned a few days ago, she was unable to do him any harm.
Even just for fun.
Her magic worked on him, her spells, but the moment her magic would do him the least little of harm, she couldn't do it. Physically couldn't do it.
It was like the feeling that kept people from sticking their hands in hot grease. And no, not common sense. It was more like self-preservation.
She could no more hurt him than she could hurt herself.
Not that a tail would hurt him, so what was the problem?
He already had a tail, anyway.
She looked back up towards the sound of ringing bells and she enjoyed the night breeze on her face.
"How long are you going to do this?"
"Sleep outside?" Nevaeha turned her head back towards him. "Court someone who doesn't want to be courted? I can go back to school tomorrow. How are you going to stay away from me, then?"
"How long are you going to grieve? I don't like it and it doesn't make any sense, anyway. Your grandmother sold you. Your mother__."
"How long did you grieve for your mother?"
His sigh was long and drawn out.
"You're tired."
"Trying to make an army overnight is exhausting. I've never seen a sorrier pack in my life. Sure, there's a few who can hold their own. Wade is a fearless fighter, but..."
"But what?" She asked when he went silent.
He sighed again. "There's a difference between a good fighter and someone who fights for survival. Theses shifters don't know what it's like to have to fight for survival."
She fought the instinct to go to him. Pushed away the thoughts of this boy having to fight to stay alive.
He wouldn't appreciate either. Her need to comfort him or her thoughts of sadness on his behalf.
"Do you need an army, Vallen?"
He didn't answer. He didn't have to. She felt his answer. Yes. He was worried. He'd never admit it, nor would he address the small seed of fear that was buried deep inside of him.
That was how he'd been raised. To be afraid. To live in fear. Even now, and without even realizing it he was doing exactly what Rylee did. Preparing for the worst. Making escape plans.
The only difference is that he wouldn't hide, and he'd kill someone for even suggesting that he could be afraid.
"You look like an idiot laid out under this tree in the middle of the night. Freezing, wearing a slip of a dress and no shoes."
Now that he mentioned it, she was cold. She got up and moved towards him.
She felt his moment of fear.
Of her.
Nevaeha sat next to him, anyway. Her right leg and his left were barely touching their shoulders, but it was enough. She was instantly warmed from the inside out. Her heartbeat found his.
She was surprised she could read his emotions so easily tonight. Why hadn't he taken them away when he was having a spell whipped up to keep her away from Bloodstone land?
She stiffened and caught herself before she could lay her head on his shoulder.
"You left me no choice."
He must have felt her upset and rightly guessed the reason for it.
"You can't be coming and going as you like. The fewer people who know about you, the better."
She grunted. "You're hell on a person's heart, you know that?"
Damn these tender, newly required feelings she had for him. Damn their first kiss that she couldn't stop thinking about. Or any of the other kisses they shared.
Obviously, he wasn't having the same problem since he hadn't kissed her since they returned from the underworld.
She sighed. She was being too hard on him. He was doing his best. All this was new to him and at least he was here. At least he was trying.
It wasn't even that none of this was enough. She's been in a bad mood ever since she realized he must have used a spell to keep her away. That meant he had a new witch.
She forced herself to take a slow, deep breath. She let her tree wrap around her in its comfort and then she begged the moon for patience. Lots and lots of patience.
Nevaeha laid her head against his shoulder, and he didn't react because he'd already known it was coming. "Thank you for coming, Vallen. It's very sweet for you to be concern for me."
He grunted and jerked his shoulder away from her. "I'm not concerned. I'm tired of this shit. The tears. You keeping me up all night with your loneliness. You're the weakest, neediest person I've ever met, and it's suddenly making sense why the fates have stuck me with you. Yeah, it's making a lot of sense."
If there'd been any actual anger in his little speech, she might have been upset by it, but there wasn't. Fear. Exhaustion. That's what she felt off of him tonight.
"Lay you head in my lap."
He tensed. "Why in the hell would I do that?"
"Because either you're going to lay your head in my lap or I'm going to lay my head in your lap. Which is it?"
"You're baffling."
"Yep."
He put as much thought into it as the president puts into running the country. At least all the presidents before this one. Eventually, he moved. She knew it wasn't because she'd given him an ultimatum. It was because he'd decided he was too tired to bother fighting with her. That or he decided it was crazy to fight with a crazy person.
He was stiff and looked as comfortable as a board, so she asked her tree to offer him comfort as well, and then she started running her fingers through his hair. Just like she's done to her wolf before. "I'm sorry I've been keeping you up at night. I do miss my mom and my grandmother, but it's more than that. The weight of every Roe woman who's come before me is laying on my shoulders now. I'm the last." She whispered.
Her tears were back.
"That's a lot of responsibility. And if my mom is correct, I won't live to see my eighteen birthday. They are counting on me, Vallen. All of them."
She looked towards her home. It's been standing for generations. Housing generation after generation of strong, powerful Roe women. This land has belonged to them before Honesty Falls even existed.
"It was my grandmother, Betella Roe's magic, that called to the other founding fathers and brought them here. Her magic was strong. She had five daughters, and it is said that when they stood together that there was no stronger magic, but even with all of our magic, my family has known so much tragedy. She lost two of her daughters within the first year of the town being established. Lost another one the next year to the curse. Betella lived to be eighty, but trust me when I say that Roe women don't live to be old and grey. All the ones since her have died too young. There's only been four sons born to the family line and only one of them made it to adulthood. Most were lucky to have one or two daughters, and then luckier still if a daughter grew old enough to have a child of their own. And now there is just me and I was lucky to make it to my seventeenth birthday."
"You don't owe them anything, Nevaeha."
"I owe them everything. I can hear them all the ones who have passed on calling me from their graves. The ones here are surrounding me and looking on with generations of hope in their eyes."
She turned her face into the hand that reached up to touch her.
That easily, everyone else was forgotten for now. She stopped, looking out into the darkness, and looked down at him. She held his hand to her cheek, needing his touch.
"As usual, you worry about things that do not matter. You're not dying at eighteen and as far as children are concerned and carrying on the family line, forget it. You know I will kill anyone who touches you."
"You might not be worried about my grandmother's deal, but I am."
He took his hand away. "That's because you worry too much. And usually about the dumbest things. I hope I'm the last Bloodstone standing. The bloodline needs to die with me. Trust me, the world will be better that way."
She said a spell under her breath and a couple of the candles floating nearby came to life. Then she said another spell to keep the wind from blowing them out.
Her fingers went back to running through his dark hair as her eyes caressed his features. He might not admit it, but he was more relaxed now. She was soothing him. His eyes were closed, and his body was not as tense.
"So there's no Roe-Bloodstone little girl in our future?"
Nevaeha was smiling softly at him when his eyes snapped opened.
"Hell no. You can get that out of your head right now."
"I don't know. It's a pretty strong bloodline to mix. Can you imagine? The blood of two founding fathers has never been combined before. It could be epic."
He noticed her teasing tone and growled. "There's a reason magical beings are supposed to only breed with their own kind."
"There's a reason Roe women can mate outside of our own kind."
She caressed his bottom lip with her thumb. "Don't you miss kissing me, Vallen?"
"I miss my life before you were part of it. I never knew I could ever consider those bleak years, the good years."
Judging from his tone and deadpan look, she would have completely believed him if she couldn't feel a trace of mischief coming from him.
Oh, the statement might be true enough, but he was trying to distract her.
He didn't look as tortured to be with her as he'd like her to think.
"Why didn't you have your new witch make a spell to hide your feelings from me again? Are you sleeping with this one?"
He grunted. "I'm definitely not sleeping with this one."
He closed his eyes as she smoothed out his frown.
Vallen must have felt her thrill at his words because he went on. "He's a fourteen-year-old boy who's barely come into his magic. I think about killing him daily because he is such an epic failure as a being. I haven't asked him to do any complicated spells because I'm afraid of who he might kill trying to do it. He barely managed that spell to keep you off Bloodstone land, and he nearly blew up my house. The only reason I haven't killed him is because Cato thinks it might be good to keep him around. Train him so that he'll be loyal to us. He has no family, so it might be an idea. That's assuming his magic ever becomes anything more than smoke and mirrors."
He looked at her. "Don't ever think that you have a say in what I do and don't do. I'll touch who I want to touch."
Her eyes narrowed. This time, he was completely serious. He meant what he was saying.
Her retort died out quickly. He meant it, but he was missing a very important piece of information.
She wasn't so sure she'd could let him touch anyone else. Just the thought of him being with someone else the last two days had her feeling very dangerous.
She didn't like that feeling and she's been fighting against it, but she hadn't been doing a very good job of it.
That's one reason she'd been so upset to figure out she couldn't go to him. It had made her think of all the reasons he might not want her to pop in unannounced.
Nevaeha went back to stroking his hair. Deciding to let him decipher her feelings for a change. "You'll little spell isn't getting us anywhere closer to me finding Cato's mate. "
"I've decided against it."
"Well, that's just stupid."