EMBER’S POV

Something aches, sweet and enormous, behind my ribs.

I push up onto my elbow to look at him. He’s wrecked and gorgeous in the low light, his hair a disaster from my hands, faint marks I put on his throat, his eyes soft and open in a way the Lycan King never lets them be for anyone.

And I understand, all at once, what I actually gave him tonight — not a punishment, not even really a game. I gave the most powerful man on the continent the one thing no one else ever offers him.

“Then I’ll take the reins whenever you need me to,” I say...