This was going to be a shit month.

Dante flew into Prim’s room in his hummingbird form and shifted straight into his natural form, stretching out his fae wings that were still a bit sore. Prim was sitting on the chaise, reading a book. She’d already cleaned the makeup off her face and changed into a nightgown during the hour Dante had to remain outside her door until the night shift escorts arrived to relieve him, Sarasha, Blukke, and Tuck. He’d walked out of the castle and into shadows to immediately remove his guard shirt, tossing it on the ground, and shift.

She didn’t even look up, either still mad from earlier with Helena, or that pretty-boy prince already having made her forget about him.

Dante padded across the room to take a seat next to her. She held up a finger and continued reading for a few moments before marking her place and closing the book.

“Sorry, I just wanted to finish that page,” she said before taking his face in both hands and kissing him in greeting. “Now, we have two pieces of unfinished business. Would you like to discuss my gift or would you like to fuck me for hours to prove to me that what I saw this morning is all natural?”

Not mad and not over him, it seemed. Just engrossed in a book. He didn’t even know she liked to read.

Dante would like to fuck her for hours. But some things were more important. “You know I don’t think you’re stupid, right? I think you’re brilliant.”

Prim’s face lost its mischievous grin instantly. “I’m sorry. Sometimes I overreact when I’m feeling insecure about that. I always felt so dumb as a kid, like I didn’t know things I should. Whenever I feel like people are questioning my intelligence, I get defensive. And Roan had already called me dumb today, so I was already thinking about it.”

Dante’s fist clenched. “Roan called you dumb?” He’d show the shifter how dumb he was for insulting his Bear.

“No.” She shook her head. “Not really. We were just fighting--about you, of course--and I called him impetuous and he said I didn’t know what it meant.”

Dante refrained from asking her if she did know what it meant or not. “But you’d made up by the time I got there.”

Prim nodded. “Kind of. Enough that we weren’t yelling at each other in front of everyone.”

Dante took her hand in his. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Prim laughed, looking at him. “Do I want to talk about how I feel about fighting with the man I was sleeping with not that long ago who just happens to still be in love with me with the man that I’m currently sleeping with and who I…” She trailed off, her amusement fading.

Dante’s chest tightened. “Who you what?”

She shook her head. “That’s really sweet, Dante, but no. You don’t have to do that. I can bitch about Roan to Kallia and Bristol if I need to.”

Dante rubbed his thumb across her hand. “Do you want me to dance with you?”

Prim looked at him questioningly for a moment, then shook her head, smiling. “Eavesdropping, were we? Did you at least pick up anything interesting from Egan or Torra you’d like to share?”

No. He’d been too focused on Prim and Neros’s conversation. “Have you ever met a man who didn’t want to fuck you within the first ten minutes of meeting you?”

Prim laughed, tapping a finger to her chin. “Hmm. You.” She leaned in to kiss him again. “But you came around eventually.”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

He certainly had.

“What’s your gift, Bear? Besides the disappearing trick.”

Prim sighed. “It’s called loping, and it’s really the same gift. When I lope, I’m stepping into a void and stepping back out in another place. With my gift, I can send other things into that void, but I can’t bring them back out. That’s what Helena tries to get me to do. She brings those baskets full of stuff--mostly rotten food, or rocks, or whatever garbage she finds around I guess--and has me dispel them and attempt to bring them back. Which I’ve never done successfully.”

Remembering her answer when he’d asked if she’d killed Sol, Dante clarified, “So you don’t kill people, you just make them not exist anymore?”

Prim slapped his arm. “I don’t do either! Well, she does have me do animals sometimes. Mice mostly. I hate it, though.” Prim chewed on her lip. “But, yes, if I had to use my gift to defend Kallia, it would be by making the threat disappear. Never to be seen again.”

Dante rubbed his thumb on her hand again. “What’s Helena’s gift?”

Prim shrugged. “When I was a kid, she’d give me a different answer every time I asked. Eventually she started giving the same answer each time: I should pray to Solin and Lunin that I never have to find out.”

Terrifying, indeed.

Dante didn’t know what to make of it. It still made no sense. Just as he was about to ask more questions, Prim leaned in to kiss him, taking his face in her hands again. “I wish you could have this face all the time.”

“I do in Pregg.” He regretted it as soon as he said it. Not only because thinking about leaving Prim here when he returned twisted his heart, but because by the look on her face, he knew it twisted hers as well.

Prim dropped her hands. “Have you ever been in love?”

A few weeks ago the answer would have been easy. Still, he voiced it, even though some part of him knew that it was no longer true. “No.”

Prim breathed a small laugh through her nose. “Until very recently, I thought if I was ever going to fall in love, it would be with Roan. I thought it was the natural progression of our relationship, and that I was the one preventing it because of my duties. I do love him, just as I love Kallia and Bristol.”

Dante didn’t like hearing about Prim’s love for another man, especially the fucking leopard shifter who’d made her feel bad about herself this morning. But she’d said she wanted a man to listen when she talked about things she cared about, so he didn’t object. “And now?”

Prim looked at him, twisting her hands in her lap. “Now I think that was a silly notion. I don’t think people can prevent themselves from falling in love, no matter how inconvenient it is or how unlikely a happily-ever-after is.”

Dante wrapped a hand around her neck, his thumb stroking her jaw. “Why do you say that?”

Dante heard her heart fluttering, saw the column of her throat shift. He could practically feel the rushing of her blood under his hand.

“You know why.”

Dante should say it, he knew. He should tell her he was in love with her. Just like Tamar had suggested after Dante had only known Prim four fucking days. When neither knew the other’s name or their secrets. Their souls had already been connected. They always would be.

But he couldn’t say it. Not when he would be leaving Hogard as soon as his mission was complete, and she would stay here. He would never ask her to leave Kallia. She likely wouldn’t even if he did.

He’d been silent too long. Prim wrapped her fingers around his hand to remove it from her neck. “I’d like to go to sleep. You can prove yourself to me another time.”

He saw straight through her forced teasing tone, but he didn’t call her out. “Do you want me to leave?”

Prim rose, taking his hand and tugging. He obediently stood. “I want you to stay. If you want to.”

She held his hand as she walked to the bed, pulling him along, then released to slip under the sheets.

Dante removed his boots and pants and slid in behind her, wrapping his arm around her, feeling her fingers find his.

He focused on the feel of her soft body and the rhythm of her breathing. It was slightly irregular. She was upset. Unacceptable.

“Bear?”

She made a noise of sleepy acknowledgment but didn’t turn around.

“I don’t think people can prevent themselves from falling in love, either.” He wouldn’t say the words he should, but he knew she understood what he meant. Just as he understood what she meant.

Her grip over his hand tightened and her heart beat faster. Then it, along with her breathing, leveled out into an easy, content rhythm. Soon, her cute little snores filled the room.