Chapter 38

Chapter 38
I could hear his heart beating calmly, almost in sync with mine. Quanah used his fingertips to trace irregular patterns on my back, sending shivers through me.
I still couldn’t understand what had happened here. Something was different, but I couldn’t pinpoint what. Or maybe I didn’t want to fool myself and assume things that would only hurt me later.
Quanah wanted to keep me close, and I was needy. That was the only explanation for us being drawn to each other like this.
“It’s not because of that.” His voice was low and hoarser than usual, making his chest rumble. “You feel the electric current swirling around us.”
“That didn’t stop you from keeping me at a distance before.”
Quanah took a deep breath, and his fingers stopped their movement. His warm hand rested there, just holding me against him.
It took too long, and I thought he wouldn’t say anything, when he finally opened his mouth to speak.
“The woman who gave birth to me went to bed with my father just to have a child and try to break the curse. But when they saw it didn’t work, she turned against me.” I didn’t understand why he’d changed the subject so quickly, but I listened in silence. It was the first time he’d spoken about his past. “I had to live with a woman who despised me. She wanted me dead; anything was fair game if she could rid herself of the werewolf and his son. My father ended up meeting a lycan and falling in love. That’s when they decided to free her from the marriage, and she was finally rid of all of us.”
He fell silent, and I waited, hoping for more, but it seemed he was done. So I turned in the bed, facing him, and propped my chin on his chest.
Quanah looked at me without really seeing me. I could tell how far away he was.
I studied his face up close for the first time—the sun-kissed marks on his tan skin, the moles, the faint wrinkles by his eyes the only sign of his age, and even those didn’t make him any less gorgeous. His thick, brown lashes framed the golden eyes I loved so much.
Loved? Where did that come from, Bridget?
“I didn’t know you had witch blood in your veins,” I said, the first thing that came to mind. In that moment, anything was better than dwelling on what I’d just thought.
“For the last two hundred years, all firstborns have. In the beginning, it was chaos. Many fathers gave up their virgin daughters to powerful men in our pack, hoping to break the curse. The two peoples hated each other, but no one could stand living bound like that. Things were done horribly; many girls were abused, used as a means to an end.” My breath caught in my throat just imagining what he described. “The lesser evil, that’s what I heard everyone say. So they were forced to carry the child until birth, and when it was clear it wasn’t the promised child, they’d go their separate ways, and the child was left to be raised by whoever would take them.”
“That’s horrific. How could they do that to children? They were just babies! How could they do that to the women? No matter how desperate they were, doing something like that should be unacceptable.”
His eyes finally focused on me, and he slid a finger down my bare back, tracing the spine.
“When my father died, I took over as Alpha and swore I’d never touch a witch, let alone a virgin. That’s when I decided to open the club. It would keep me away from any innocent girls.”
I couldn’t help the smile that spread across my lips at his last sentence.
“Seems like you didn’t have much luck with that, did you?” I bit my lip, trying not to laugh at his expression, and he pinched my butt in response, making me jump on top of him.
My legs were now positioned on either side of his hips. There was the shadow of a smile on his lips, and I realized I’d never seen him smile, at least not genuinely. All the smiles Quanah had shown me were mocking or wicked. And a wild desire to see his real smile grew inside me.
I leaned down and touched his lips with mine, a slow and gentle kiss.
“My plan didn’t quite work out. They threw a little redheaded witch into my bed.” He bit my lower lip before sucking it, making me want him to keep going. “When I found out you were pregnant and who you were, I thought you were part of that ridiculous scheme, another crazy witch willing to do anything to break the curse. That’s why I hated you. I thought you’d do the same if the baby wasn’t the one from the prophecy, but we found out that even before he was born, we’d already broken the curse.”
“And then you thought I’d abandon our son with you and leave to enjoy my powers now that I could use them?”
“You could say that.” He ran his hand up my thigh, sending shivers through me.
“It wasn’t in my plans to be a mother so soon, but I’d never abandon a child, let alone with you—that would be too much torture…”
His hands grabbed my waist, tickling me, and I had nowhere to escape, laughing and screaming, trying to stop his fingers when he flipped us over, pinning me beneath him.
“What are you doing to me, little witch?” His question was somewhat rhetorical since he didn’t give me time to answer.
His mouth descended on mine slowly, with no rush. Our lips moved together, and I held his face, threading my fingers through his hair.
“Will it always be like this?” I murmured, pulling away from his kiss. “When we touch…” He kissed my neck and bit my skin. “This thing when you kiss me. Tell me you feel it too?”
Quanah thrust his tongue into my mouth, and I moaned against his lips.
“Of course I feel it!” he said through gritted teeth before kissing me again.
I still couldn’t understand what was happening between us, but the fact that we were finally starting to understand each other scared me. Any kind of happiness or peace filled me with panic because I knew it was just the calm before the storm.