Page 55 of Thane's Demon
The one who had been watching me.
He was across the courtyard now, walking quickly toward a sleek black car parked along the curb. His shoulders hunched slightly, as if trying to disappear, but it was too late. I had already seen him. And Thane had too. The man pulled open the driver’s door in a hurry, glancing back once as though to check if he had been noticed. My breath froze when he turned enough for the sunlight to catch on the ink along the side of his neck. A serpent curling around a dagger.
Thane went still beside me, so still that for a moment even the wind seemed to hesitate. His grip on my hand tightened, his entire body coiling with a lethal promise that made a shiver make its way up my spine. I felt power ripple through him like he was already planning how to get to the man. Already assessinghow to break him, how to make him regret ever looking in my direction.
He took a single step forward.
Just one.
And in that single step, I could feel the violence he was holding back, the fury simmering low beneath his skin. As if he had the instinct to hunt and punish. I didn’t know what it was, but I knew enough in that moment to understand that whatever darkness lived inside him wanted blood.
“Thane,”I breathed, barely more than a whisper, but he heard it. And it was enough to get him to stop mid-stride. He looked down at our joined hands, at the way my fingers clung to his in trust rather than fear. The decision played across his eyes, as if the small gesture of trust was something huge for him. As if the predator inside him wanted to chase, but the protector inside him wanted to stay.
Instead of violence…he chose me.
His jaw flexed, tension cutting through him like a blade as he stepped back instead of forward. His gaze remained locked on the car as the door shut and the engine roared to life, but he did not move. The car sped away, disappearing down the road with a screech of tires, carrying the man who had followed me out of sight.
My heart hammered painfully.
He could have chased him as he had clearly wanted to, but he stayed with me, and that meant a lot. Thane then turned to me slowly, the storm in his eyes now mixed with something else, something deeper and terrifying in its intensity. He lifted our joined hands slightly, his thumb brushing over my knuckles in a motion so gentle it made my breath stutter.
“I will deal with him, but not now,” he said quietly, voice low and rough as he stepped closer. Close enough that his warmth pressed against the last remnants of my fear.
He tugged gently, urging me to move with him, keeping my hand tight in his as if he refused to risk losing me.
“Come on, I’m taking you somewhere no one can touch you,” he murmured, the command soft but unyielding, and with Thane’s hand in mine…
I felt safer than I ever had in my life.
23
THE DESIRE TO HUNT
THANE
Ihad expected fear when she stepped out of that alcove. I had expected trembling hands and wide eyes, sharp with the sting of panic clinging to her skin. What I had not expected was the feeling of her lips on mine.
Soft.
Warm.
Trembling.
So painfully innocent that it struck clean through every line I had drawn between us. The kiss emptied my mind and made my body freeze. Even my demon went silent, stunned into stillness as though her touch had stolen the breath from both of us. I hadn’t trusted myself enough to make the first move because I knew the moment I crossed that line, I would never stop. I knew the creature inside me would tear through my restraint and that I would devour whatever softness she offered. I knew that if I kissed her,really kissed her,it would be a point of no return.
Then something inside me jolted so violently, and I pulled back too fast, too abruptly, as if the softness of her mouth had been fire against skin I had spent years keeping numb. Fora heartbeat I stood unmoving, my breath unsteady and pulse hammering as if every instinct was locked in a war between wanting her and fearing what I might do if I gave in. I didn’t trust the demon inside me, not with something as fragile and precious as her. I had spent so long keeping its hunger contained that the shock of her kiss had split open places I had buried far too deep.
But then she looked down.
And shame flushed across her cheeks with a pain so raw it struck harder than any blade. She couldn’t even meet my eyes. She whispered apologies as if she had committed some unforgivable sin. As if her lips against mine had been a mistake, as if she had broken a rule she did not know existed. I watched her shrink from me, watched the brightness I had begun to crave dim beneath the weight of her regret, and the sight felt like a blow straight to the chest. After all that…
My will shattered.
All the restraint I had been clinging to, all the distance I forced between us, fractured like brittle glass. I couldn’t let her think I didn’t want her. I couldn’t watch her fold into herself because of a kiss I had wanted more than my next breath. I couldn’t bear the thought that she believed she had done something wrong when the only wrong was the fact that I had denied us both for so long.
My demon rose with a snarl, not in fury at her, but in fury at me, at the pain I had caused by pulling away.
‘Take her.
