Pain again flared in my heart when I remembered that. It is what it is, Tala. Don’t dwell on it. As long as I kept reality firmly in mind, I could meet his end of the bargain while finally learning what I’d been wondering about since we’d met. I could do this.

I squared my shoulders. “Okay, fine. You tell me what you are, and I’ll sleep in your bed with you tonight, but all we’re doing is sleeping.”

A swell of triumph graced his features, smugness glittering in his amber-hued eyes.

I glowered. “You’re doing it again.”

“Doing what?” he asked with mocking innocence.

“Gloating.”

“You can hardly blame me. Having you in my bed is something I’ve craved since the first moment we met.”

Since the first moment we met? But that would mean . . .

I shook my head. No, he was mind-fucking with me. Manipulative demony wolf hunter. Don’t fall for it. You saw his amusement. He found your attraction to him comical, hardly sexy.

Keeping that reminder firmly in the center of my thoughts, I said, “All right, I agreed to your terms, so tell me. What are you?”

“It’s not a simple explanation.”

I raised my hands. “Then good thing I’m not busy at the moment.”

“Well, you should be busy. You should be training.”

I rolled my eyes. “Just tell me already.”

His brow furrowed. “It has to do with what happened to me after my father brought me here.” He waved to the mat. “Do you want to sit down? This won’t be a quick story.”

OceanofPDF.com

Chapter 17

I settled on the mat beside the hunter, being careful to keep a few feet of distance between us. I didn’t want him getting any ideas. Now that I’d agreed to spend the night in his bed—even though I’d made it clear we were not having sex—I also knew that I needed to keep my wits about me.

He leveled me with those amber eyes, his chiseled features growing carefully blank. “I’m half werewolf and half demon, but I also have sorcerer magic. My magic comes from a sorcerer that my father commissioned when I was young. After my father brought me back from the underworld, things were difficult, so now I have that particular sorcerer’s magic inside me.”

I sat up straighter. “How?”

He gazed at me, his expression turning deviously innocent. “I believe our deal was that I simply told you what I am. I just did. I’m a demon werewolf who possesses a sorcerer’s magic. I’ve upheld my end of the bargain, and now it’s your turn to uphold yours. Tonight, I expect you in my bed, beside me, until morning.”

My core clenched at just the thought. Dammit, that wasn’t a good sign. Remember reality, Tala.

A sizzling heat grew in his eyes. “I very much look forward to this evening. It’s only a few short hours away.” He inhaled, his pupils dilating when my true scent hit him. I hadn’t put my cloaking spell back in place, and with a start, I realized it was the longest I’d gone without it since I was a child. “You smell so delicious, colantha. I can’t wait to taste you again.”

“There will be no tasting. Just sleeping!” Okay, so my voice sounded a bit breathless there, but I couldn’t believe what I’d agreed to. Worse, I wanted to know more. Even though the hunter had revealed what he was, all that did was elicit even more curious questions in me.

He made a move to stand, and my hand shot out, locking around his wrist. I forced myself to ignore the feel of his hard muscles bunching beneath my grip, or the way his entire body grew still and ready, as if he were just waiting to pounce. “Why did you tell me to sit down? That was hardly a long story.”

He settled back beside me, his large body moving with cat-like grace.

I inched back a foot. Funny how the hunter hadn’t seated himself where he’d been a second ago. Oh no, he’d seated himself right beside me so our thighs brushed.

“You’re right. That wasn’t a long story.” He grinned wickedly. “But it could be. I could tell you everything. Everything from the time I was born to now. Then you would know exactly what I am and why I turned out this way.”

“I have a feeling that information comes with a price.”

His grin grew. “You know me so well.”

I rolled my eyes. “How many people know your story?”

“Only one.”

“Who?”

“My father.”

“What about your brothers and sister? Your non-pack? Your friends?”

“They know some of the details but not all.”

My heart skipped a beat. “Yet you would tell me those details?” I shook my head in disbelief. “Why?”

“Isn’t it obvious? I want you.”

I forced myself to take a deep breath, because that dipping and rolling feeling in my stomach had increased a hundred-fold. “Why do you want me so much?”

He inhaled, leaning closer.

I backed up even more, knowing that if he touched me at this very moment, I would succumb to the heat sliding through my veins.

“Because I do.”

I did my best to maintain an even expression, but that crestfallen feeling engulfed me again. It was the mate instinct, one hundred percent. It was the only reason he wanted me.

It is what it is.

Swallowing down my growing disappointment, I asked, “And what price do I have to pay to learn the whole story? And I mean all of it. I want to know what you are and how you ended up here in a pack that despises you, and how your father impregnated a female demon, and how a sorcerer’s magic came to be inside you.” I licked my lips, and the hunter’s gaze fell to my mouth. A golden glow lit his eyes. “How much will that cost me? For you to share all of that? For me to know everything?”

His heated gaze grew. “That would definitely require me fucking you.”

I slugged him in the shoulder just as he let out a deep laugh. He caught my wrist, his eyes darkening. “Have I ever told you how much I love your violent side?”

I stuttered. He’d seriously just used the L word. Granted he hadn’t said he loved me, but he still used the word. I quickly brushed those thoughts off. It was the mate instinct talking again. “You just told me that I have to prostitute myself for information so, of course, I’m going to hit you.”

“I was kidding about you having to fuck me. I only said that because I knew it would elicit your”—his lips curved in delight—“more aggressive tendencies, and I do so enjoy it when you hit me.”

“You’re deranged.”

“Perhaps, but what I’m not is a paying customer. When you finally let me bed you—and you will—it won’t be because I forced it from you. Instead, it will be because you’ll be begging me to slide inside you. And I’ll have you so wet, and so hot, that you won’t be able to live another moment without me filling you.” His voice dropped, his words turning husky.

My chest tightened, my breath catching. Just hearing him describe that, even hint at what it could be like between us . . . Gods.

His nostrils flared. “Even now, I can tell how much you want it, which makes me even more frustrated that you’re fighting this so much.”

“We’re getting off topic,” I said breathlessly.

“Perhaps, but you have to admit, this is a much more tantalizing subject and one I’d much rather be discussing.”

“I disagree.” I cleared my throat and tamped firmly down on the ache in my belly. “Now, back to what we were talking about . . .” Gods, my voice was still breathy. “What are your new terms? For you to tell me everything about you, what do you want from me?”

He watched me for a long moment, his gaze never wavering. That golden glow was still there, his wolf in his eyes. “I want you in my bed every night.”

Every. Night.