Chapter 27 CHAPTER 27
Time passed, longer than it should have, and still nothing happened. Her breathing stayed close, still pressed against me, and I knew she was awake. I could hear it in the way her breath caught just slightly, in the way it no longer followed the rhythm of sleep. But she didn’t move away. She didn’t try to escape. She didn’t react the way I expected, and that unsettled me more than if she had.
My attention fixed on her without me meaning it to, every sense focused on the smallest movement she made. When she shifted again, just a little, I was ready for it, certain this would be the moment she would pull away and run. My body was already prepared to release her the second she tried.
But she didn’t pull away. Her hand lifted instead. The movement was slow and careful, like she wasn’t even sure she should be doing it. I felt the hesitation in it before she touched me, the brief pause in the air as if she was giving herself one last chance to stop. Then her fingers brushed against my fur.
The contact was light, barely there, but it hit harder than anything else had. A sudden warmth moved through me, sharp and quick, settling deep in my chest before I could push it away. I went completely still, not because I chose to, but because I didn’t know how to react.
She wasn’t pulling away. She wasn’t afraid. She was touching me.
That alone made something shift inside me in a way I didn’t like. My jaw tightened as instinct pushed at me to react, to stop her, to grab her hand and put distance between us before this became something I couldn’t control. That would have been the right thing to do. The safe thing.
But I didn’t move. I stayed where I was, my eyes still closed, my breathing steady, holding onto control as her fingers moved again, slower now, more certain, brushing along my face in a way that made it impossible to ignore.
This wasn’t fear. This wasn’t defiance.
This was something else.
And I knew, in that moment, that whatever this was… it was far more dangerous than anything she had done before.
And fuck me! Her touch felt so fucking good, soft and warm. I wanted to lean into it even more, but I pushed that though aside as fast as it came.
VERA
I felt it before I saw it. The shift. The moment his body changed, just slightly, like something in him had woken up.
My breath hitched, and I quickly closed my eyes, forcing my body to go still again, pretending I was still asleep. My heart started beating faster, loud enough that I was sure he could hear it, but I tried to keep my breathing slow, even, like before.
I didn’t dare to move. For a second, nothing happened. Then I shifted just a little, trying to slip out of his hold without making it obvious, but the moment I moved away, the warmth disappeared. Cold air rushed in where his body had been, brushing against my skin and making me realize just how warm he had kept me.
I swallowed. Before I could move any further, his voice broke the silence. “I know you’re awake, little hunter.”
My eyes opened instantly. There was no point pretending anymore.
I pushed myself up slowly from the fur rug, keeping the blanket pulled tightly around me as I sat up. My gaze moved around the room before it landed on the floor… and froze.
My clothes? It was torn, and scattered.
My stomach dropped.
I stared at them for a second too long, my mind trying to catch up, and then it hit me all at once. I looked down at myself, panic rising as I quickly lifted the blanket just enough to check.
My eyes widened.
My pants were gone.
For a moment, I couldn’t move. Heat rushed to my cheeks, spreading fast, burning as the realization settled in. I pulled the blanket tighter around me, my hands gripping the fur as if it could somehow hide everything at once.
I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t. Not with him right there. Not with the memory of his hands on me, tearing the fabric away, still too fresh in my mind.
My gaze lifted slowly, meeting his, a mix of shock, anger, and something else I didn’t want to name sitting in my chest. “You…” My voice came out softer than I expected, rough from before. I swallowed, trying again. “You took my clothes off?” The words felt strange coming out, like I wasn’t even sure how to react.
Because I didn’t understand this. any of it. One moment he had been trying to kill me. The next… he was saving me. And now I was sitting here, wrapped in his blanket, my face burning, my clothes in pieces on the floor.
Nothing about him made sense, and that made him even more mysterious, like an unsolved puzzle with the wrong pieces.
“You took my clothes off?” I asked again, still gripping the blanket tightly against me.
He didn’t answer right away. He simply watched me from where he sat beside the fire, his arm resting over one bent knee, completely calm while my face still burned with embarrassment.
“You were freezing,” he finally said, his voice low and steady, like the answer should have been obvious. “The wet clothes would have killed you.”
I opened my mouth, ready to argue, but no words came out. The memory of the icy water crashing over me returned again, sharp enough to make me shiver slightly beneath the blanket. My eyes flicked back toward the torn clothes on the floor, and suddenly the anger in my chest tangled with something else.
Confusion. Because he sounded so… normal. Not cruel. Not mocking. Just honest. That somehow made this harder.
I looked away from him quickly, my grip tightening on the blanket as I finally took in the room around me properly. The chamber was smaller than mine, though still far bigger than anything I had ever known back home. Dark wooden shelves lined one wall, old books stacked between strange objects I didn’t recognize. A large fireplace burned across from us, filling the room with warmth, and near it stood a massive bed covered in thick fur blankets.
Weapons hung against the stone walls, large ones. Blades, axes, things that looked ancient and dangerous. My stomach tightened slightly. This wasn’t my chamber. The realization hit me fully now, and my eyes slowly moved back toward him.
“This is your room,” I said quietly.
His gaze held mine for a moment before he gave a small nod. “It was warmer than yours.”Again, simple. Like dragging me into his own chamber and stripping me out of frozen clothes was the most normal thing in the world.
I didn’t know what to do with that.
Silence settled between us for a few seconds, broken only by the crackling of the fire. I became painfully aware of how close he still was, how I was wrapped in his blanket while wearing almost nothing underneath it.
Heat rushed to my cheeks again. I hated that he could probably see it.