Chapter 146
Lirael
The evening sun painted the cabin in shades of amber and rose as our private jet cut through the clouds. I sat by the window, watching the world blur below, my mind still processing the past forty-eight hours—the rescue operation, the survivors now safe in Damian's care, and the impossible bargain I'd just struck with the man sitting across from me.
Sebastian hadn't taken his eyes off me since we boarded. I could feel his gaze tracing the line of my profile, lingering on the silver mark at the corner of my eye, the way my hair caught the dying light and shifted from deep brown to something closer to moonlit silver.
"You know," his voice broke the silence, low and intimate, "from the moment I sat down on this plane, my eyes haven't left you."
I turned to face him, finding his amber gaze fixed on me with an intensity that stole my breath. In the golden light, his eyes seemed to glow, and I could see myself reflected in their depths—achingly vulnerable in a way that made my chest tighten.
"That's because you're a possessive wolf who doesn't know how to look at anything else," I said, aiming for levity but hearing the breathlessness betray me.
His lips curved into something too predatory to be called a smile as he rose and crossed to my seat. He settled beside me, close enough that I could feel the heat radiating from his body, smell that dark chocolate and whiskey scent that was uniquely him. His hand reached out to catch a strand of my hair, winding it around his finger with deliberate slowness.
"After your people are settled," he murmured, his thumb tracing the silver strand, "after all of this is over and they're safe... will you leave?"
The question hit like a punch to the gut. My heart stumbled, then raced, because this was what I'd been avoiding. I thought of the safe house Damian had prepared, the new identity waiting, the freedom I'd fought for. But I also thought of the man beside me, who'd turned his world upside down to save people he'd been taught to view as property.
"That depends," I said carefully, "on how the Night Lord plans to treat me once this is all over."
His eyes darkened, something fierce and hungry flickering in their depths. His hand slid from my hair to cup my jaw, tilting my face toward his. "I want to lock you in my estate," he said, his voice dropping to a rough whisper. "I want to wake up every morning and have you be the first thing I see. I want to know that you're mine, that you're safe, that no one can ever take you away from me again."
I tried to pull back, but his grip tightened just enough to hold me in place. "Sebastian—"
"This isn't a request," he interrupted, his thumb stroking along my jawline. "This is a notification, Lira. I'm telling you what I want, what I need. And I need you to understand that I'm not letting you go."
The raw possessiveness should have terrified me. Instead, it ignited something deep and primal in my chest, a traitorous warmth that spread through my veins. I stared up at him, torn between the urge to argue and the dangerous desire to surrender.
"You can't just decide these things for me," I managed, but my voice came out breathier than intended.
Sebastian leaned closer, his forehead nearly touching mine. "Watch me," he murmured, and the challenge in those two words made something in my chest clench tight.
Before I could respond, the plane lurched, and the captain's voice announced our approach to Ark City. The moment shattered. Sebastian pulled back with visible reluctance, his hand lingering on my jaw before he released me and returned to his seat.
I turned back to the window, pressing my fingers to my lips, my mind spinning with questions I wasn't ready to answer.
When the wheels touched down, I finally allowed myself to look at him. He was watching me with an expression I couldn't quite decipher—hunger, yes, but also something softer, more vulnerable.
"I was thinking," I said abruptly, desperate to break the suffocating silence, "about that time Damian took me to the docks near Black Reef Island. During my captivity, before everything went to hell. He snuck me out during one of the guard rotations and bought me grilled fish from this tiny vendor stand. It was the first real food I'd had in months, the first time I'd felt like a person instead of a specimen."
I trailed off, lost in the memory, not noticing how Sebastian had gone completely still until his voice cut through like a blade.
"Damian?" The word came out low and dangerous. "You're telling me that Damian took you to the docks? Alone?"
I turned to find his eyes had shifted, amber bleeding into gold with vertical slits. The temperature in the cabin seemed to drop as his entire body went rigid.
"Sebastian, it was years ago, I was seventeen—"
"I don't care if you were seven," he snarled, and suddenly he was moving, crossing the space in a blur that had me pressed back against my seat before I could draw breath. His hands gripped the armrests on either side of me, caging me in. "How many times did he take you there? Did you go alone? Did he touch you? "
"Sebastian, you're being ridiculous—"
"Answer the questions, Lira," he growled, his voice dropping into that dangerous register. "Every. Single. One."
The plane lurched as it began taxiing, and I felt Sebastian's body shift to maintain his balance while keeping me pinned. His eyes were fully gold now, and I realized he wasn't going to let this go.
"Twice," I said quickly, my heart hammering. "He took me twice, always alone because he couldn't risk the guards reporting it. He never touched me inappropriately—Sebastian, I was a child, and he was trying to give me some small measure of humanity. That's all it was."
"That's not all it was," Sebastian bit out. "He wanted to be your savior, wanted you to think of him as someone safe, someone good. And you fell for it, didn't you?"
"Stop it," I snapped, finding my spine and shoving hard against his chest. This time he allowed me to create some space, though his hands immediately moved to grip my hips. "You're jealous of a memory, of a kindness shown to a terrified teenager who thought she was going to die. Is that really what you want to be?"