“Why did she lick my finger?”
Standing, Danika smiled softly. “Because she likes you, Giles. She’s terribly confused. She understands that what she’s doing might very well end badly for her, and yet I believe that were you to ask her why, she’d simply say because it matters.”
“What matters?”
She shrugged. “Ask her, she’ll tell you.”
Giles shook his head. He set out on this journey with the mindset of finding the chalice and returning back to his castle. There’d been no other goal in mind. Falling in love had played no part in any of this, and he still wasn’t there. He liked her, true enough. But was that enough of a foundation to base ideals of love on?
“But my people, we do not mingle.”
“Who cares, Giles? Those are old conventions that mean nothing.”
“No, there are reasons. We are sterile outside of our species. I could never have a son, bear a daughter. Pass on my line.”
“Oh.” Her brows lifted. “That I did not know. Then I suppose it makes the decision all the harder for you. In truth, you do not need to take Lilith on as your mate. I understand that what I am asking isn’t part of your journey. You will find the chalice and return to your castle and your employment and your life can continue on as before. But I can promise you that if you choose to open your eyes and your heart, Lilith will bring you great joy.”
“But she believes this to be impossible anyway, so why would she even want me to?”
“Because as she’s matured she’s realized the truth of what she’s done. But I believe not until recently has the matter impressed itself upon her. I believe in my heart that she loves you, or is very nearly there, and love makes fools of us all.”
Giles clenched his jaw. He’d known Rumple his entire life, and that his prince would make such a deal, one that did not benefit him at all, it bothered him. Flexing his fingers, he watched as Danika began to slowly fade from sight.
“Why did Rumpel do that to her?”
Her ghostly smile was all he saw as she said, “I can only speculate. From here on out, her life is entirely in your hands.”
Lilith returned an hour later feeling exhausted but more determined than ever to focus on the task at hand. And that was retrieval of the chalice. For what purpose she still didn’t know, but it didn’t matter to her.
She’d made a fool of herself this morning and wouldn’t do it again. Giles couldn’t have made his position more clear, and regardless that she found him more fascinating than any other male she’d known before, he clearly did not feel the same.
Besides, she’d been playing a dangerous, stupid game with him. She knew full well the implications of her deal with Rumpel, that mating with anyone besides a wolf would mean her death.
Never could she have imagined the emotional strain she’d have to fight to stave off those powerful emotions. At thirteen she’d believed her willingness to never fall in love would have been enough to sustain her through her long-lived life. But now, only nineteen, she was beginning to comprehend the loneliness of the life she’d chosen for herself.
What St. John had attempted to do to her, it would only continue. Her parents knew that once this was over she was never coming back—she couldn’t. It was why she’d stared back at her home with a terrible sense of ache and longing when they’d passed the borders of her land.
If she went back the nightmares would only continue. Her brothers would be safe; they were each alphas and ran as their own pack, they had power enough to keep anyone away from them. But she was a female, one slip-up, one moment where she was out of their sights, and that would be it.
Even though she was an alpha, her will would never be stronger than a male’s. They would dominate and destroy her.
Pack law would not allow any mated wolf to molest another, so even though no one within her community cared for the fact that her mother and father were together, no one could ever harm Violet because of the way the laws of magic worked.
She, however, was under no such protection. As much as her family loved her and would do anything to protect her, they weren’t omniscient, and at some point somewhere she would be found and raped and made a slave to the perverse whims of the victor.
And she would rather kill herself first than to ever allow that to happen.
Staring at the shack, wondering if Giles had fallen asleep again, Lilith debated whether to spend the night outside camped under the stars. She’d not be bothered this night. This was sacred ground to shifters. Unless there was a bitch in heat pumping out her pheromones to every male wolf in the vicinity, the males generally left the clearing alone.