Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 77692 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77692 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
“Can I show you something else?” Halun asks.
“Please.”
My mind fills with a memory of me in the bunker hallway, covered in blood, holding a knife to Halun’s middle as he stood just inches from me. But I don’t feel the fear I did in that moment, but Halun’s emotions. The utter relief he felt at having found me at last. The fear that something, someone, could take me away from him. He felt his beginning and his end all in one moment.
Tears come to my eyes and one slides down, hitting his chest. I hurry to go to wipe it, but he grabs my wrist.
“Don’t hide them from me. Never me, Zawla. Be soft with me. You are a warrior, that much is clear. But with me, you don’t need to be.”
“I’ve grown up in a world where it was all I could ever be. I could fight or be a victim. I could never afford to let myself become the latter.”
“I know. I’m glad you fought. When I think of all the ways they must have surely tried to break you when they held you captive …” His arm tightens around me. “But you didn’t let them. But you don’t have to fight me. Not when all I want to do is love you.”
I feel a tension I haven’t even ever known was quite so heavy ease away from me. My body goes slack in his embrace from it. The tension of having to always be on guard, of not being able to trust, of seeing danger in every person I came across … It fades at his words, and the way Halun lets go of my hand to wrap me even tighter in his arms tells me that he notices it, too. I let my eyes close just like that.
I’m awoken by a hard knock at the door.
“What?” Halun hisses out, so low that I’m sure he’s trying to respond to whoever is on the other side of the door without waking me.
“A message from your father, Waliz,” someone says.
“Guess our time is up.” I chuckle.
“Okay,” he states. Then to me, he reminds me, “I said we weren’t moving until you tell me to.”
I lift my head to cock a brow at him. “You’ll keep your father waiting.”
“I will.”
I smirk. “You’ll keep your king waiting?”
“Same answer.”
“Hmm, while I am tempted to see how long I could actually keep you in this bed, I want to go check on Zarah.”
“I will have someone escort you there.”
“And, uh, take a bath first.”
He arches his brow now. “Are you so quick to wash my scent away from you?”
“I figure if I do that, you will just get me back in bed later to make sure your scent is all over me again.”
His lips curve. “I like the way you think, Luna.”
I give him a quick kiss and begin to move off of him.
“No,” he groans. “I don’t like this.”
“Really, you should be blaming your father.” I laugh.
I watch him get dressed, not at all bothering to clean me off of him before pulling on his pelt and belting it. He kisses me again and tells me someone will be outside our door to take me to the bathing room whenever I’m ready. When he had me thrown over his shoulder, I would never have imagined I’d feel such a loss at seeing him leave, but the moment the door closes behind him, I yearn for him to come back.
I’m not quite sure what all this means, but I know I like it. And I don't want it to go away.
*
As I pass the Hallan posted at the entrance to High Deck, I notice the way his eyes dart away from mine.
“Is something wrong?” I ask.
“No, Waliz.”
“Why won’t you meet my eyes, then?”
He’s young, barely attained his adulthood, having just begun his service to the Hallan army. I put him here to keep him out of the fray with the humans, as I told his father I would before we left Hallalah. The way he seems so flustered right now, though, has me fighting to hold back a laugh.
“I … Sounds carry on this ship.”
My brows furrow for a second before I realize what he means. The laughter bellows out of me.
“When you get your mate, I’ll ask you if you care if anyone hears the sounds you make with her.”
He lightly chuckles and shakes his head.
“Luna will require an escort to the bathing rooms and to see Zarah. Can I trust you with that?”
His face gets serious in an instant. “Of course, Waliz.”
I nod and continue my walk to the control room. Ponor, whose voice I’d recognized through my door, bows his head when I enter and then instructs the other Hallans in the room to step out.
“I would not have interrupted your time with your mate were it not for the message being from your father,” he tells me.