Page 88 of Mantle

Being around my boys helped to enforce that.

But being aroundhim, even just for these brief moments so far, threatened to unravel that, to transport me back to that uncomfortable and hopeless time before, to being that clueless girl who’d spent so long running from who and what she was.

“Corvin,” I uttered, my voice steady despite the shock.

He didn’t take weakness well. He was all about strength and power.

It was one of the reasons I’d chosen him—to be with him for my first time. He’d wanted the challenge. He’d wanted to take it. And I’d thought he could.

I’d been really wrong about that.

When I lost control of my power during that… intimate act… he’d almost died.

An Ancient Vampire–Sorcerer, with all that endurance and might, had almost perished because I lost control.

I hadn’t heard from him since that night.

The last thing I remembered was him telling me it wasn’t my fault.

It might’ve been a noble thing to say, considering he’d been severely injured at the time.

But then he’d followed it up by admitting he’d been majorly turned on—witnessing and experiencing my explosion of power all over him.

Unfortunately, several of my family members had overheard it. They’d been there, tending to the aftermath… including the structural damage toPolaris.

To say his comment had been strange—and honestly, kind of creepy—didn’t begin to do it justice.

It had been deeply unsettling and had only added to the mortification of everything that had transpired that night.

“It’s been a long while, Celestial beauty.”

“It has. Another lifetime ago,” I responded, pointedly.

“Well, it was in your best interests to perceive it that way… given the humiliation of what happened, yes?”

I shifted my weight. “It was an experiment gone wrong.”

“An experiment? I believe it was quite a bit more than that—especially to you. Before your… loss of control, shall we say, you were also experiencing a great deal of pleasure. Courtesy of my talents in that area.” His lip curled. “Especially in determining what you needed.”

Urgh.

I pulled my jacket closed over my tank top. “Why are you here? You’d slipped into seclusion. You haven’t been seen or heard from in years.”

“Well, I needed to recover after your implosion. I was badly hurt, if you recall.”

“You’re an Ancient Vampire. Recovery wouldn’t have been that lengthy.” I shifted my weight again and asked with a firm edge to deter him from going off on a tangent again, “Why are you here, Corvin?”

He stepped closer, just shy of breaching my personal space, a sudden urgency that he hadn’t demonstrated until right now coming off him. “Does it really surprise you that I would seek you out?”

“Yes.”

He arched an eyebrow. “How so, Celestial beauty? Did you not anticipate that I would want to lay eyes on you again after deciding to forgo my life of solitude? We had a connection.”

He reached out for my hair, but I batted him away before he could even make contact.

Only my boys touched my hair.

“I have to get to class, to my men, to my life. If you actually came here to say something, say it now, or walk.”

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