“Do you think she's... the right one?” Arik asked, his voice gentle.
Nik looked Arik straight in the eye. “Yes. I do.” He saw the flash of doubt on Arik's face. “I was mistaken, with Lora,” he began, lowering his head for a moment. Then he looked back up at Arik and scanned across the room as he said, “But I don't regret it. She was a special woman and she was family, no matter what we've seen. No matter how she died. If she wasn't a so-called pureblood, it changes nothing. I loved her. As far as I'm concerned, she was still one of us and I will challenge anyone who says differently. She was still my mate. Bond or no bond.”
Arik nodded his head.
Maria gazed at Nik and he glanced her way. They exchanged a look -a glimpse of the grief they had suffered from their loss- and then turned away from each other.
“She was a rare, lovely creature, no doubt about that,” Arik agreed and mumbles in the room concurred. “What do you think we should do about Jasmine?”
“I don't think we'll have any trouble with her. She might not trust any of us at the moment but she has enough curiosity to stick around,” Nik responded.
“What have you told her?”
“That she was adopted. That she isn't human. At least not in those words anyway, but she knows it herself, even if she continues to deny it. That she will change physically and mentally and won't be able to handle it alone. She's scared but those in surveillance haven't seen her step out of line.”
“She attempted to escape however?”
“She tried,” Nik replied with a smile of recollection.
Arik didn't question him further about it; instead, he changed course. “And does she know about you and Lora?”
*
Jaz stared at Driver, her feet glued to the ground in terror as he watched her in the darkness. The strap of her bag dug lines in her palm from gripping it too tightly.
He was sitting up, propped on his hands, his rippling, chiselled torso exaggerated by the moonlight. She stared at it longer than she should have and before she knew it, she suddenly felt a fire in her chest, her belly, her thighs. She flinched, recoiling from the irrational, repellent feeling. She was so embarrassed.
He glimpsed the redness of her cheeks and heard her heavy breathing and rapid heartbeat. It made him want her. Thirsty, craving heat fizzed through his body, centralizing in his groin. He'd never wanted someone so badly. He studied her pale face which was luminous in the light from the window; her bright eyes marking him, discerning his every move.
He saw how beautiful she was, how the light caressed her delicate frame, her soft, pink lips, her narrow cheekbones, her long dainty neck, slinky, sweeping shoulders, slim arms. Her chest, her waist, her curvy hips. All were tensed, ready to run- though he knew if she was going to, she would have by now.
He tried to absorb everything he could about her whilst she stood there, enabling him to study her openly; all barriers momentarily stripped from between them. They both gazed at one another with the same yearning -despite Jaz trying to fight it. It felt like electricity shooting from one person to the other. A continuous circuit. She finally managed to cut the link between them, snapping her gaze away to focus on the ground.
He scanned her body, head to knees – her lower legs hidden below the bed- before speaking. “If you want to leave,” his low, velvet voice was a little breathless, as if speaking took a lot of effort, “no one's stopping you.” He focused on her long lashes and the even longer shadows they cast down her narrow cheeks as she looked down. “But... is that what you really want?”
Jaz flicked her eyes up, locking on his. She hadn't failed to notice that he had been looking at her the same way she'd been studying him: with desire and longing. She felt extremely uncomfortable, and flattered, and repulsed. Her head was a mess -and on fire but that was from some kind of fever she suspected she was developing due to an infection. Most likely from the roadkill she'd wolfed down the day before. The thought made her scowl at him, and if she wasn't so terrified of him she'd have snarled a list of profanities the length of her leg.
Instead she said in an acidic voice, “Of course it's what I want. And you're stopping me. Why d'ya think I was trying to sneak out in the middle of the night?” She kept her cool, not wanting to imagine how he'd punish her for that. She was bewildered to find his expression at her response was... understanding. Mind games, she suspected again.
“I'm not stopping you. You are. Because deep down you believe what I said is true,” he replied in his deep, rumbling voice.
She frowned at him, annoyed.
“So, do you want to leave?”
“I don't have a choice,” she retorted.
“Everyone has a choice,” he argued.
She huffed, folded her arms and shook her head, looking away.