Chapter 318: Shadows, Showers, and Pre-Dinner Heat

Vivian’s POV

My brow furrowed in confusion. "Frank?" I poked his soft little spiky side. Nothing. My stomach gave a nervous, uncomfortable twist. "Frank?"

"Oh no, no no. Don’t you die on me right now, I was totally joking!" I panicked out loud, shaking his tiny body gently. "Come on, man, wake up OW!"

That furry bastard bit me.

He snapped right out of his fake "coma" to sink his sharp teeth straight into my index finger. I jerked my hand back with a loud curse, actively resisting the massive urge to fling him right into the next dimension.

"You manipulative demon rat! You played me!"

He hung completely limply in my grip again, pure smugness radiating off his spiky form like he had just won a gold medal at the Olympics. I stalked furiously back into the pack house, clenching him tight in my fist like the little criminal he was.

"You are officially grounded for life," I growled under my breath.

Once I tossed Frank back into his cage thankfully still completely intact despite his recent escape artistry I made my way up the grand staircase to get ready for dinner. Two hours. That was all the time I had left, and I had not even figured out what to wear yet.

There was no way in hell I was wearing high heels tonight. I was certainly not about to twist an ankle or break a thin heel if someone decided to get cute during dinner and I had to kick them directly in the jaw.

The house felt entirely too quiet. Suspiciously clean, too. Zahliver had to be behind it. I possessed a strong gut feeling that he had gone through our master bedroom and cleaned every single surface with military precision. Even my laptop was not sitting where I had originally left it. I found it tucked under the bed, not on the desk. Typical Zahliver behavior.

I turned the screen on and hit shuffle on my favorite playlist, letting the music fill the quiet space with something much less eerie. Then I headed straight into the closet, flipping through outfit after outfit until I finally found one that did not make me feel like a walking fashion ad or a frumpy couch.

With my outfit secured, I groaned out loud as I made my way toward the bathroom. I had already taken a shower before heading out to the hospital earlier, but after spending all those hours inside that overly sterile building, I felt like I had come home coated in hospital bacteria and baby cries.

Just as I reached out my hand for the bathroom door handle, I felt a familiar presence behind me and there he was.

Zahliver.

He stepped quietly into the bedroom, pausing right in the doorway. His electric blue eyes met mine, and something unspoken passed softly between us.

It felt like the quiet calm right before a massive storm.

I froze in place for a moment when I saw him standing by the doorway, his tall, muscular frame looking almost uncertain as he leaned there with both hands stuffed deep into the front pockets of his jeans. His face, usually completely unreadable to everyone else in the world, was shadowed by intense concern. That soft frown on his lips, the quiet storm brewing in his blue eyes it was all strictly for me.

A small smile curved on my lips as I took in the glorious sight of my mate the powerful, unpredictable god-wolf who looked strangely hesitant right now.

"Hey," he said softly after a long silence between us, his deep voice dropping low and sounding almost cautious.

"Hey," I echoed back, matching his quiet tone.

"Are you doing okay?"

I blinked at him, tilting my head a little to the side. "Why wouldn’t I be?"

He looked genuinely unsure, his blue eyes narrowing slightly as if searching for something hidden in my facial expression. "I don’t know... you just seemed off earlier."

"Oh. Right." I exhaled a soft breath, suddenly realizing what he must have sensed through the bond or rather, what he had failed to sense. "Sorry about earlier today. I guess I just... needed a bit of space for myself."

It hit me then that I had unintentionally shut him out completely. My heavy mental walls had been held firmly up all day long. A sudden wave of guilt prickled through me as I carefully opened the mental connection between our minds again. The physical effect on him was immediate. His rigid posture loosened up, the deep tension holding his broad shoulders tight slowly melting away. He dragged both of his large hands down his face with a long, heavy sigh.

I stepped closer to his body, cupping both sides of his face in my warm hands, my thumbs gently grazing the dark scruff lining his strong jawline. He had not shaved today. Something about that tiny, human detail made my chest ache with tenderness.

"And yourself?" he murmured softly, his voice sounding scratchy with deep fatigue. I could feel the immense weight resting between us not directed at each other, but surrounding us like a thick fog. Worry. Stress. A shared feeling of helplessness that we were both silently carrying on our shoulders.

"I just really needed time to think," I said, rubbing gentle, soothing circles into his skin with my thumbs, trying my best to coax his closed eyes open again. He kept them shut tight, like he did not want me to see something dark hiding inside them.

"Think about what, my love?"

I shrugged my shoulders lightly. "About how weird I am as a person. About the upcoming wedding plans. About how Fate and Joshua like to play bizarre cosmic games instead of just telling us what the hell they actually want from us." That comment finally got his eyes to snap open. Sharp, glowing blue, and deeply intense.

"Pretty sure world domination does not come with a ’share your evil plan’ manual," he deadpanned smoothly, raising a single dark brow down at me.

I gave him a mock pout. "Still, it would be really nice if they gave us a subtle hint every once in a while."

He chuckled under his breath, the deep sound soft but completely real. "Yeah. It really would."

There was a quiet pause in the room before he tilted his head. "Is that truly all you were thinking about up on that mountain?"

"Mostly... but." I hesitated on purpose, trailing off.

"But?" he pressed gently, reading my subtle shift like an open book.

A wicked smile tugged at the corner of my mouth. Instead of answering his question with words, I smoothly moved behind his body before he could even react to my shift. Wrapping both of my arms securely around his waist from behind, I pressed my cheek flat against his broad back. His heavy muscles rippled instantly beneath my hands, the exact way they always did whenever I caught him off guard. I grinned right into his shirt fabric and slowly slid my hands downward, my fingers teasing their way toward the top button of his jeans.

"But now," I murmured against his spine, unhooking the button, "I think you should come join me for a warm shower."

I barely managed to brush my fingers against his zipper before his large hand caught mine in an iron grip. In one smooth, effortless movement that terrifyingly fast, fluid kind of movement only he possessed he spun around on his heel, switching our physical positions so that I was pressed back in front of him.

I looked up at his face, my breath catching sharply in my throat as I met his gaze. His eyes had darkened dramatically, turning a deep, stormy ocean blue filled with raw heat and intense hunger. His tongue flicked slowly over his bottom lip. I mirrored the exact action without even thinking about it.

"Do you now, my sweet mate?" he asked, his voice dropping low and extraordinarily rough.

"Yeah," I whispered up at him, my fingers threading tightly through his dark hair. "I really do."

I yanked him forcefully down to my lips without waiting another single second.