My insides fluttered. Why, why, why, why? Why did he have to look and sound like that? And why did it pull at me?

A knowing glint entered his fiery eyes, flickering like rubies, and I knew my arousal was hitting him full throttle.

“Yeah, I did.” Ocean held up the bag. “You hungry?”

OceanofPDF.com

Chapter 22

We managed to sit down at the table like three normal adults, eating apple fritters after Ocean had insisted on making the coffee ’cause she’d . . . you know.

But the entire time his sister fussed in the kitchen, I felt the hunter’s gaze on me. Watching me. Assessing me. Craving me. The heat that smoldered in his eyes was enough to set me on fire, and I knew right then and there that if I didn’t do something drastic, I wouldn’t survive another night in his bed without riding that impressive cock of his until the sun rose. Especially if we were to be training each day, our minds and magic intertwining, which was intense enough as it was.

So, somehow, some way, I managed to start putting distance between us following that disastrous apple fritter breakfast. It started slowly at first, by keeping a few feet of space between us when we left or entered the house. During training, I sat on one end of the mat and forced Kaillen to sit at the other. If he entered a room in the cabin, I would leave it. And at dinner, I would sit an extra seat down from him, just so our hands couldn’t accidentally brush.

It was enough of a conscious effort on my part that he took notice. Each time I forced those distances, his brow would furrow, and his gaze would darken, but I made a point to continue doing it.

But by day four in Oak Trembler, I realized it wasn’t enough. I still woke up each morning tangled up in the hunter, his erection hard and ready, my body aching and wanting. So I took it a step further, desperately doing everything I could to guard my heart and not give in to his wolf’s mate bond. Sometimes when Kaillen would talk to me, I wouldn’t answer. Other times, I would pretend he’d said nothing at all. And I began taking my meals separately from him, eating at outrageous times of the day just to avoid the sexy hunter. The odd hours didn’t stop with the meals either. I began going to bed either much earlier or later than him, sometimes hours before or after. It messed with my internal clock, but some days I was so exhausted by the time I fell asleep that sex was the last thing on my mind.

And amazingly, despite the awkward wedge that had been born between us, my first week at Oak Trembler turned into my second week, and I found myself falling into a daily routine of survival and avoidance.

It was pretty much the same thing day after day. Sleep until waking, then immediately dart out of bed so as not to be tempted by the hunter. Eat. Train all morning and into the afternoon. Eat again. Craft spells to send to Nicole and work on what I could for Practically Perfect remotely. Eat again. Write to Tessa and Prisha. Read their letters if any had come through that day. Then go to sleep with me on one side of the bed and the hunter on the other.

It was doable but barely. And whenever I felt myself start to cave or give in to the desire that scorched my nerves, I remembered Carlos’s warning and Kaillen’s feelings for me before I’d dropped my cloaking spell.

It was enough to snap me out of it. And thankfully, the near miss before that apple fritter breakfast had made me realize how easily I could succumb to Kaillen, so I made putting distance between us a priority. I only talked to him if I truly needed to, and I only allowed his magic to enter me during training.

Our training intimacy was bad enough since it affected the both of us, but he’d been right that it was necessary because each day, I sensed my new power a little bit more, and each time I felt it, I was able to call it out and wield it a tiny bit better.

But I knew the mental and physical distance I was forcing between us at all other times of the day was wearing on the hunter. His wolf thought I was his mate, and I was firmly rejecting him, day in and day out.

Consequently, each day Kaillen grew surlier and more irritable, and I supposed I had nobody to blame but myself. But I didn’t know what else to do. I had to survive this.

∞     ∞     ∞

“Again!” Kaillen demanded in the training room at the end of week two, his tone razor sharp and pulsing with magic. “Draw my power from me and don’t stop.”

My third week of training was nearly upon me, and I’d made enough progress that I was finally able to access my awakening magic somewhat readily.

“Now, Tala!” the hunter snapped when I didn’t move fast enough.

Gritting my teeth, I pulled upon my new magic that I could now find almost as easily as my forbidden power. I’d finally learned where it nestled in my belly, in that deep, dark cavern that was black as tar and as invisible as a ghost. But with the hunter’s help, I’d learned how to sense it, how to reach into that void and beckon it forth. It now only took me a few attempts to find it before I could tug on it. Because of that, we’d begun working on me pulling the hunter’s magic from him.

The familiar feel of Kaillen’s heat and flames entered me. I gasped, then slid my invisible tentacle-like claws along his power, getting a low groan from him in the process. I grasped at his magic more, pulling and stroking. A harsh breath parted his lips, a half moan, half snarl working up his throat, but since I’d only taken a little from him, I sucked more. Biting and clawing, stroking and taking.

“Yes,” he rasped. “That’s it.”

A river of magic poured into me, barreling and rushing as I grasped and yanked. Those invisible tentacles from me clamped onto him, sinking their teeth into his power, drawing more and more from the hunter until an ocean of potent magic, mind-altering power, and tantalizing heat filled me.

Gods, it was so much. It was enthralling in its intensity.

I still hadn’t learned how to wield it, though. I could pull it out, yes, but when it came to harnessing his power and blending it with my own, I was still pretty clueless. But I had learned how to draw out Kaillen’s magic slowly, controlling its flow. My awakening power was no longer a complete disaster of siphoning everything at once—killing the recipient in the process. Now, it was more of a gentle coaxing that flowed at the speed I commanded.

Fiery flames licked my insides the more I drew the demon hunter’s magic from his core. Throbbing desire came next. Everything about Kaillen’s magic was so hot and so vicious in its unfiltered potential. And when it wrapped around me . . . gods. I wanted nothing more than to settle on his cock.

It took everything in me not to climb all over him. Training was always like this. On one hand, it felt as if I were burning alive from the inside out, and on the other hand, I wanted nothing more than to fuck my training partner.

But part of mastering this new power was learning how to keep it from affecting me so much. On some days, I still fell to the floor, writhing in agony when I lost hold on that ability to tame it, but on most days I was able to corral it, as if my magic looped around it and kept it contained, which also kept me from grasping the hunter’s impressive boner and doing all of the things I desperately wanted to do to his body.

And that was how today was going. A smile slid across my lips as I coaxed more of the hunter’s power from him. It surged through my tentacles, my body drinking it in as I filled that well inside me. Desire made my core throb, but I kept it in check.

“Tala,” Kaillen whispered. “That’s enough.”