Page 136 of Pretty Little Prey
“Fuck you.”
“Stop fighting,” Bastille chastised the men from his spot on the floor.
Since the moment they had all settled in the Dark Ones’ large cabin—after explaining to Daxton that a lamb would feel more overwhelmed in a grand castle—Bastille had not left Luna’s side. His hands remained firmly planted in her wool at all times. Petting her. Calming her. Within the first few hours, she stopped shaking in his presence.
Of any of the men, Bastille’s guilt was the most agonizing. If he had never called for a contestation, if he had trusted in the prophecy and let go of his hatred of the Dragomir family, his mate would have never gone through such pain.
Would take on all the pain for her, Bastille thought as his gut twisted, and he gently petted her shaggy, unbelievably soft wool.Little fluffy ball of white.
“Did the king of the Dark Ones just tell usnotto fight?” Sly asked, incredulous.
Bastille was…changing. Almost losing a mate did that to a person.
For the first time in his life, Bastille was gentle. He had ever so slowly worked the red tag out of her ear and bandaged the bleeding area. He had tenderly bathed her with buckets of soapy, warm water. Sure, Daxton and Bastille had bickered about what temperature the water should be for their little lamb, but she sat patiently in the tub until they figured it out. He brushed her, pet her, and never left her side.
Days passed with her in animal form. The men tried not to convey their disappointment each morning when they woke and she was still the same. Bastille and Kobe took turns feeding her.
All of the men would spend time whispering promises to her. “Once you shift back, we’ll do whatever you’ve been dreaming about. Travel the world. Eat at the finest restaurants. Or pancakes and grilled cheese. Whatever you want.”
“Once you shift back, I have a full set of paints for you, little mate,” Daxton would say to her. “You can improve these cabin walls. They drastically need it.”
The men did everything they could not to fight as they tried to create a stress-free, relaxing environment for her. But there were some days…
“You won’t even try it?” Daxton yelled at Bastille. “It could shift her back today!”
“I amnothypnotizing her. It may not even work.”
“Then, why not try it?”
“Because I took her choice away from her before,” Bastille shouted back at him. “I had her turned into a vampire against her will and she—”Hated me. “I’m never doing anything like that again. She’ll take the time she needs to herself until she can shift back. We shouldn’t rush her.”
Luna stared at the kitchen counter, the men not noticing her fascination. Every day, Kobe made her a grilled cheese and kept it on a plate for her just in case she shifted that day. And she wanted it. She missed human food. She was stuck eating grass and ground corn all day.
The men would sneak around each other and hand feed her to try to get her to like them more. It was adorable. Sweet.
She wanted to tell them that.
She wanted to tell Bastille that she saw how soft and gentle he was with her. That she appreciated his constant comfort. She wanted to thank Daxton for shipping in some fancy as heck grass that admittedly tasted better than whatever they first fed her.
In fact, Daxton kept buying her random things, wanting to spoil her. His latest overspending habit was purchasing dresses for her animal form, which the guys had many thoughts about, consisting of: “Dude, we’re taking your credit card away. You have a problem.”
Luna wanted to laugh at Sly’s jokes and tell him to stop being so serious—sometimes he would gaze at her with such an expression of dejection and pained yearning that she wanted to hug him. All she could do was poke her nose at his knees. She wanted to tell Nikolai to go hunting for blood because he wouldn’t leave the cabin and he was clearly starving.
She wanted to snuggle with Kobe on the couch and watch the silly cartoons he put on every morning.
In her animal form, she had learned new things about her men. New quirks. They even had a game night and played cards on the floor—always wanting to be level with their mate instead of on the tall chairs—while Luna trotted around them in a circle and saw who had the best chance of winning.
Bastille kept losing because Sly figured out that Luna blinked twice whenever Bastille was bluffing. Sly kept that bit of knowledge to himself, winking at her throughout the game night.
She wanted to play them—annihilate them—in card games. And share meals with them. And travel the world like they promised.
“You will love Scotland,” Daxton told her while holding a world traveling book. He would flip the pages and point to things for her. Whenever she nudged the page with her nose, he wrote down the area to visit in the future. “Stretches of wide green land for you to graze.”
Nikolai scoffed. “We can’t take her on a plane in her lamb form.”
Sly defended Daxton, “But she’s my emotional support animal.”
“I have my own jet,” Daxton added helpfully. “And plenty of money to bribe her into the country.”
