Void(53)

“For fuck’s sake!” Gritt yelled, reaching out to stop me by grabbing both my hips, keeping me steady in his hands. “I’m not trying to...gods, you’re infuriating.” Gritt closed his eyes and started whispering to himself, something about a fucking mate bond and camping outside, exposed to the elements. “I’m just saying that you’re obviously resourceful and smart. Find ways around it all. Stand up for yourself.”

I looked down at his large, rough hands where they grabbed me. He was so masculine and fierce, and there was a possessive gleam in his eye that I wanted to wrap myself in. I knew that the mate bond was driving his protective instincts, but instead of fighting it, I wished that he would be okay with this bond. I wished that he would accept me.

“You’ve really got to figure out what you want, Gritt. One second you’re threatening me, and the next you’re acting like you care. This is all crazy.”

Gritt squeezed me harder. His hands had bunched up my t-shirt, and now all I could feel were his rough fingertips digging into my skin. “Don’t I know it,” Gritt whispered.

I stared at him for a moment before deciding to take his advice. “You want me to be resourceful? You want me not to be a martyr? Fine. Take me to your room,” I said with challenge.

I saw his throat bob, and I wanted to lift up on my tiptoes and lick the sexy Adam’s apple that bobbed below his blond scruff. “If you care so much, then I’ll sleep there tonight. And if you’re nice, I might even share the bed.”

I waited, seeing how he would respond. I expected Gritt to put up a fight, to argue and tell me that there was no way in hell that he’d let the nasty Void into his shifter dorms. I expected rejection. But instead, a slight purring made his chest vibrate as he stepped even closer. I gasped when I felt his hard erection press against me. “Okay.”

I blinked at him. “Okay?” I clarified, my earlier confidence fleeing my body.

“But no feeding. Last time...it was too much. My animals lost their godsdamned minds,” Gritt said before putting distance between us once again. It was on the edge of my tongue to ask him what he meant by that. Last time we’d spoken, he’d denied that there was any pull between us. I knew what he was thinking—that he’d rather spend his life alone than accept a mate bond with the Void.

“No feeding,” I heard myself promise. My heart beat fast in my chest. Was I really doing this? Was I really going to spend the night with him? Gritt was…well, Gritt. He was wild and rough and hot and mean. Only, there was another side of him, too. He just tried not to let that side deal with me. But the softer, protective, and sweeter side was there. I just knew it. And I realized, with a jolt, that I wanted to get to know that side. I wanted him to lower his walls so that I could see him. All of him.

Maybe challenging him to spend the night with me was odd, considering that he’d once attacked me, but the pull between us couldn’t be ignored, and despite everything, when Gritt was around, I felt...what the hell did I feel? Better? Comforted? No, those weren’t quite right. I guess, when he was around, I felt more...connected. Like he was the other end of a shoelace, and we were supposed to be tangled up together.

“Come on, then. I told my shifter an hour ago that she could come down, so she’ll be here soon. We should get going.”

“Okay,” I said.

“But the damn rat stays here.”

“And let him get eaten by a feral shifter, no way!”

Gritt glowered at me, crossing his big muscular arms in front of him.

“Fine,” I said with a huff. I turned and scooped up Cheddar, little bed and all. “Come on, little cheese, you can sleep outside tonight.”

Once I got Cheddar settled near the base of a tree, certain he was plenty comfy with moss in his bed, I followed a grumbling Gritt back to the academy, chuckling at his “damn rat” talk.

It took us a little while to get all the way back to the shifter dorms since they were located in a separate building with specific amenities for the different types of shifter animals. At the lower level, there were massive, deep pools for oceanic animals, and the entire outside of the building was full of trees and plants, some of them even growing through the roofs and windows. It was like the dorms were built around the forest instead of bulldozing its way on top of it.

“This is beautiful,” I said before following him through the doors. Naturally, shifters started to sneer and growl the moment we walked inside, some of them even baring their teeth at Gritt. He snapped back, letting his paragon power roll through the building with authority.

“My room is this way,” he said before leading me down a corridor filled with vines. Moss covered the doors and walls, and instead of room numbers, there were carved rocks on each door. He stopped at a door at the end of the hallway and opened it slowly, pausing in the threshold of the door to address me. “Don’t touch anything. Don’t mess with my stuff. I’m very...territorial.”

“You don’t say?” I teased, pushing past his bulky frame to go inside.

Gritt’s room was impressive. It had a traditional design with large windows looking out onto the field, making the room seem even bigger than it already was. The room was massive, with vaulted ceilings held up by solid wooden beams. It felt more like an upscale apartment than a shifter dorm room.

“Are all the rooms like this?” I asked in awe before walking over to a comfy chair near the fireplace.