Page 79 of A Velvet Kiss After Dark

Ezekiel appeared at her side, and in a flurry of movement too fast for her human brain to wrap around, he set Kane on her bed, and then launched his mate across his shoulder in a fireman's grasp before he quickly exited as fast as he'd come.

No front door remained.

Well, this was awkward, and it felt like a dream. As if it wasn't real. As if she'd wake up and be back in her one true form.

Tabitha had never been able to bring herself to attend therapy. Even though vampires and werewolves and witches were a known natural part of the world now, she still couldn't come face to face with a therapist and begin to breach the topic of her "going to Hell, which is a literal place, and seeing dragons, ogres, murder and a golden king made of energy."

Right…so, she just kept to herself all this time.

And now, the man who'd shirked his way inside her heart lay on her bed looking next to death.

"Why do you always show up at my place in times of need?" Tabitha wondered to herself.

A finger from his hand twitched as if he'd heard her response.

And a sanguine smiled flitted over her face.

She bent down to press a soft kiss to his temple.

"Welcome back," she whispered.

And as she twined her fingers with his, she felt his fingers curl around hers and capture them. A cry escaped her. A rush of emotion poured through her, and seeing him once again and touching him to see if he was real, shook her to her very soul—and she cried alongside him, weeping gently.

35

A deep, familiar voice spoke some long time later.

The crack of light from the beginnings of a sunrise loomed on the horizon, bringing with it fresh daylight that peered through her blinds.

"Are you going to cry on me forever or are you going to be mind, Tabitha Burke?"

"I didn't know werewolves could be sentimental," said Tabitha as she dried her tears on her sleeve.

"We take mates, don't we?" Kane said with a voice so hoarse as if it'd been in disuse for a somber amount of time.

"Yes, but not in a church," she stated.

"Fair enough," Kane's responded in a gravelly voice. "So, what do you say, beautiful? Want to love me forever?"

One corner of her mouth quirked upward in a mesmerizing grin. "Maybe I do."

His gaze flitted down to her mouth. "Then come kiss me, my soon-to-be wife."

And so, she did.

36

"Kane," Tabitha said flatly. "It's gone."

"What's gone?" he called out from the shower where he washing for the first time in a long time.

"The relic," she said pointedly.

"Oh," came his only response. He flushed water from his hair, which had grown long and made him look darker and more exotic in her eyes.

She stroked the dry towel that hung on the hook at the door while she waited for him to finish

"It was meant for him anyway, you know." Kane said once he shut the water off and pulled back the glass door. Tabitha watched him, transfixed by the pattern made from his ribcage, bones, and muscles. He was gorgeous. She'd have to tell him.

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