CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Astra

I wake to warmth surrounding me like a cocoon, my body more relaxed than it has been in weeks. Something solid and firm presses down on my back, and there’s a heavy weight across my hip that I can’t seem to identify.

My eyes flutter open slowly, consciousness drifting back like fog lifting from water.

Something’s different.

I’m warm—warmer than I should be, sleeping outdoors. There’s a slowly pulsing rhythm beneath my ear that isn’t my own heartbeat. Something solid and firm presses against my cheek, rising and falling in a hypnotic pattern.

I blink, my vision slowly focusing on smooth, tanned skin stretched over muscle. My...