Total pages in book: 194
Estimated words: 187754 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 939(@200wpm)___ 751(@250wpm)___ 626(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 187754 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 939(@200wpm)___ 751(@250wpm)___ 626(@300wpm)
“I’m thinking about it.”
“Pick it up, Aurelia.”
“Fine.”
Five minutes later, I still can’t get the damn arrow on the shelf without fumbling or dropping it. How does Thorin make it look so easy?
“Practice,” he tells me after I ask him. “And so will you.”
Ugh.
I’m not expecting him to step behind me—so close that I feel the heat from his chest warming my back and his lips moving against my cheek when he leans forward to see over my shoulder. “These fingers have always been so graceful,” he purrs as he takes my hand holding the arrow. “All you need to know now is where to place them.” I hold my breath as Thorin moves my fingers up along the hunting arrow until I reach the fletching. “Index and thumb only. It’s not a cock, Aurelia. You don’t need to fist the arrow like one.” Thorin’s husky laugh when I elbow him in the abs sends heat rushing down the slope of my neck and my heaving chest until my nipples harden under the heavy layers of clothing. “Good girl,” he praises when I follow his instructions. “Now load the fucking arrow, wolf. Make me proud.”
Holding my breath while he tightens his hold on my waist, I place the arrow on the rest, and two steps later, I have it fucking nocked.
“Holy shit,” I exclaim as I stare down at the bow. “I’m a bad ass. I’ll take my secret assassin card now. The Huntress has nothing on me.”
Thorin blows out a breath and chuckles. “Talk like that around Zeke, and he’ll come in his pants.”
My smile drops as I look over my shoulder to meet Thorin’s blue eyes. “Zeke? Don’t you mean Seth?”
He shakes his head. “No. Zeke is into comics and crime documentaries. Seth likes fantasy and romance.”
I turn my attention toward the bow in my hand again when I ask, “But he’s never met me. How do you know he’ll even like me?”
Thorin takes an unsettling amount of time to answer before sighing heavily. “I won’t lie to you, wolf. It’ll be rough when he wakes up. He’ll need time to get used to you, but I think—”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Thorin. What if he doesn’t come around? You’ll have to choose between us.”
Thorin gave up his entire life to keep his friend and brother safe. I’d be a fool to think he’d choose me.
If Zeke can’t accept me, I’m worse than fucked. I’m dead.
My fate rests in the hands of a man who is not entirely whole, a man I’ve never even met, and a man who has every reason to fear me.
And his name is Ezekiel Cura.
“Tell me, Thorin. Tell me right now that if Zeke wakes up and wants me gone, you’ll choose me. Better yet, tell me that you’ll let me go rather than kill me when he can’t.”
“Aurelia, I…I can’t.”
“I know. I wouldn’t have believed you if you had. A monster I can live with, Thorin. A liar, I cannot.”
I take one step away, and Thorin fists the back of my coat and yanks me backward until we’re connected again.
“Why does it have to be this way at all, Aurelia? What if there’s a way?”
“There isn’t.”
“We can make one,” he says almost desperately.
“You’re many things, Thorin, but you’re not selfish. If Zeke needs me gone, that’s the way it will be, and we both know why you can’t just let me go.” Peering over my shoulder, I stare into his frustrated blue eyes as I repeat his words from the night Khalil took me. “The fallacy is thinking that the choice was ever really yours.” I feel his grip loosen, and I shrug. “Zeke will give you no choice, and neither will I. He is your friend. I’m a warm hole and a loose end. There was never going to be any other outcome but this one.”
Thorin’s breathing quickens as the same wildness he had in his eyes the night he found me returns. I’m slipping through his fingers, and he can feel it. What wild animal won’t attack when its food is threatened?
Oddly, I don’t feel dread when I pull away from him, nor do I fear that he will hurt me, but his reaction still surprises me.
The feral look eases into an unreadable one as he shrugs. “Then I guess I’ll have to take a page from the book of Aurelia. When my back is against the corner and I have no choices left, fight like hell anyway and talk shit while doing it.”
He doesn’t give me time to figure out how to respond to that before taking the bow from me and continuing with his tutoring as if nothing happened.
“Keeping your shoulders level and your arm as straight as the arrow you’re pretending to fire, I want you to pull on the string, hold for five seconds, and release.” He unloads the arrow and quickly demonstrates before handing the bow back to me.