TWENTY
LILLIANE
Shifter relationships were complicated.
But maybe just relationships with grumpy lone wolves like Atlas were complicated. He was the most stubborn man she’d ever met, and as the daughter of Sylvester Longborn, that was saying something.
Atlas meant well by keeping away from her, by keeping his plans away from her. He meant well, and she fucking loved that he was keeping her out of it.
It probably made her weak. If her life was a movie, no doubt some people would be watching her struggle through this, shaking their fist at her for not being more involved in getting rid of Victor.
The typical annoying heroine with no backbone.
That wasn’t fair to her, she knew. Because the truth was Lilliane wasexhausted. She had already spent so long playing Victor’s mind games all by herself that it left her bone tired.
Here was Atlas with all his shifter resources and wolf friends willing to help her with her vamp stalker issue. What was she supposed to do? Ignore him and walk right into danger as some kind of feminist martyr?
Nope.
Wrung out as she was, Lilliane wasn’t in any shape to fight Victor. He knew how to manipulate her and twist her into a shadow of herself.
Atlas didn’t look at her and see a woman terrified of the dark. He saw what she was, and his first instinct was to protect her. Shewantedto be protected by Atlas. When he held her, she was whole again. It didn’t matter that she couldn’t sleep without him by her side because hewantedto be by her side. Not to control her, or possess her, or drain her like Victor wanted to do.
Atlas just wanted to love her for as long as she let him.
The silly wolf still believed, deep down, that she would leave him.
She would prove him wrong.
It didn’t matter that she hadn’t known Atlas very long. Her soul was at home with him, andthatwas all that mattered. Lilliane thought her dinner-for-breakfast idea was genius. Atlas loved sweet things, and it was the only sweet meal she could think of. So it wasn’t creative, exactly. It was part of their love story, though. She had to build one moment after another to show Atlas that she was exactly where she wanted to be.
The next step of her plan was a bit more precarious. She didn’t know how Atlas would react, but judging by the way he devoured her the night before, she had an inkling.
Once the dishwasher was on and they were sipping coffee on the back deck, watching the sun go down, Lilliane started her plan. She moved from her chair to sit on his lap.
“What?” she asked. “I’m cold.” She wiggled as much as she could.
Atlas gripped her hips and settled her where he needed her. “I know what you’re doing,” he whispered in her ear.
“No clue what you’re talking about.”
“Uh-huh. So you’re not sitting on my lap to seduce me?”
“What? No. You’re basically a heater, and I’m freezing. Share the heat, Atlas.”
He chuckled and closed her in the circle of his arms. “How’s this?”
She nuzzled his neck. “Better. So much better.”
He kissed the top of her head before laying his cheek against it. “Four days ago, if you would’ve told me we would be doing this, I wouldn’t have believed you.”
“I know. Same. I thought I would be locked in a vampire’s dungeon doing weird sex stuff.”
He stiffened under her, and she immediately realized her mistake. She eased back to look into his eyes. “He drank my blood, but we never did anything more than kiss.”
“It’s fine.”
“I’m just trying to tell you that he didn’t … you know … force me to do anything.”
