Her ears heated. “I mean, I think it would be cool. I just can’t even imagine that right now.”
“I agree,” I mumbled as we walked into our senior history class. “The concept of raising a small pup is a bit intimidating.”
My wolf didn’t agree with my analysis, considering we knew our mate, but I didn’t really give a fuck about his opinion most of the time. Well, actually, I usually just ignored it. He growled at that. Oh well.
“Right?!” She smiled, looking relieved.
Maker, that conversation felt like forever ago, but it had been less than a year ago. It was interesting that in some ways I still felt the same. The concept of having a family was intimidating, but I could see it with Narcissa. She made me stronger, and I knew that we would be able to figure out anything together. I wanted her by my side, no matter what that brought. Whether it meant traveling and going place to place or staying here and settling down. I was going to be by her side for whatever she wanted.
My wolf liked the idea of having a family for an entirely different fucking reason.
“So that whore mate of yours was stupid enough to fall into a fucking trap?” my drunk uncle slurred, causing a savage growl to rip through my teeth. The bastard had been trying to get my attention for a while through his asshole commentary, but until his words against Narcissa, I hadn’t given a fuck.
Before I had a chance to stop myself, I was across the room, his shirt hoisted up in my fist as he choked in surprise. I pulled back my fist sharply and knocked him out, his cry of pain making me feel somewhat better. His body laid sprawled out on the floor as I looked over him with disgust. I smirked slightly, feeling a bit better and knowing that Narcissa would probably find it amusing and justified.
It didn’t change the past, but it sure as hell made me feel better about the future.
4
Narcissa
It was becoming startlingly clear to me that I had never had a true hangover. Maybe a slight headache or a general sense of drowsiness. But hungover to the point of being so sore that my entire body felt completely drained? Bile resting in my throat as everything radiated pain and dehydration? Yeah. That was how I felt right now. This was like the worst fucking hangover in the world times ten. It was the only way to explain how I felt right now. Fuck.
Everything around me felt out of touch. My fingers, gripping the soft unfamiliar sheets around me, felt almost numb. I blinked my eyes open, everything coming across as blurry. I let out a pained groan, my temple pulsating in a sharp sensation as nausea rolled over me, making me curl further into myself.
The shaking began sometime after that as a searing heat began to filter through my body, making me sweat. The ceiling above me spun as I once again attempted to open my eyes to ground myself. My eyelids were sore and hot, as if I was about to cry. Which I totally was.
I lied. This wasn’t a goddamn hangover, this was like the flu.
I had no idea how long I stared up at the ceiling trying to ground myself while inspecting the red silk that hung in billows above me. The color alone had me feeling even worse, so it took longer than expected. Where were my boys? I frowned, feeling terribly confused, my hearing popping as I finally cued into the familiar cadence of their voices nearby.
It was clear they weren’t in the room with me, which made me uncomfortable, but it settled me a bit to know they weren’t far. I tried to yell out to them, but only a faint raspy sound emitted from my throat. Going silent, I tried to listen to their familiar voices, holding onto them like an anchor in this new painful reality that I found myself in. I had no idea what was going on, but I was about fucking over it, that was for sure.
Where the hell was I? What the hell was going on?
With a small whimper, I rolled onto my stomach, pulling a pillow towards me to bury my pounding head against. What had happened earlier today? My brow furrowed as the memories began flooding back. The hot-as-sin sex with Dorian that drained all of my frustration from the influx of death magic around me, and my not-so-little annoyance with my mother. Well, annoyance... more like fury.
But then after that, completely blank slate. I knew I was forgetting something. Something that would have left me in this state, but I couldn’t remember for the life of me. I couldn’t connect the missing pieces to where I was now. I had never felt so out of it in my life, and that was saying something.
Finally, working up the energy, I pushed back on my knees in a yoga-like pose, my back muscles stretching in relief as my nails dug into the bedding. After a deep breath, I attempted to push forward into a tabletop position and barely maintained it, my vision spotty. Inhaling and exhaling, I managed to clear my vision and finally sit back to examine where I now seemed to find myself.
The massive suite was luxurious, to say the least. The entire space was decorated in elegant, high-end dark wood furniture, luxurious vibrant silk, and crystal lighting that reflected the candlelight. Everything seemed untouchable and priceless.
I couldn't tell you if there were any windows in the room, because all of the walls were trapped with layers of dark material that had me feeling sleepy despite just waking up. Narrowing my eyes, I briefly noticed there were two distinguishable doors I could find.
One was clearly where my men were, partially open and emitting a small amount of light, and the other was closed. Placing my legs over the side of the bed, I stood and gripped the bedpost to ensure that I didn’t fall over or something stupid like that. I needed to clear the fog from my brain, and more than anything? I had to pee like a motherfucker.
Walking across the expensive carpeted floors, I grabbed onto the jewelled door handle and sent a prayer up to the gods that this would be a bathroom. Pulling it open slowly, candles came to life, revealing a stunning dark marble masterpiece of a bathroom. I squinted, avoiding looking directly into the light, as I walked towards the toilet. Relieving myself quickly, I went to go wash my hands and finally looked up into the mirror, my eyes no longer stinging like they had sand in them.
Holy hell.
A strangled sound came from my throat as my knees almost broke out from underneath me. What the actual fuck?
For the record, let it be known I had always wanted to look more badass in an attempt to defeat my horrid case of the cute syndrome. But this? Well, this was a fuck ton of a lot more than I had bargained for.
Momentarily, I was distracted by the thought of my fellow cute syndrome sufferer, Shadow. I really hoped he would be alright. I couldn’t imagine it was fun being adopted and then fucking ditched. Yes, if you were wondering, I was attempting to distract myself from whatever this was...
When I had imagined a more ‘badass’ vibe, it had been in a ‘leather jacket motorcycle’ type way and not so much ‘demon queen that would rip your heart out’ way. You know? I mean, I had literally been served up the second one, and I wasn’t positive there was a way to undo it.
My dark, thick hair was now tumbling down to my hips in lush waves that lightened to crimson-dipped tips. My normally bright gold eyes that sometimes turned green were now an obsidian color that had expanded out to the point that there were little to no whites to be seen. Those changes alone... I may have been able to get over.
But the markings all over my body? Yeah, no. That was a bit goddamn freaky, even I had to admit that. The markings were very obviously demonic in nature, most of them almost skeletal. It was as if someone had drawn bones across my skin—anatomically correct, for the record—and then tattooed the bones with fucking demonic runes.