Chapter 25

Third Person POV

Asher heard the clinking of a glass on the dining room table as he stepped back into the house, the scent of alcohol drifting to his nostrils.

Is she drinking in the middle of the afternoon? Asher thought to himself, immediately worried about the why.

He knew she hadn’t been sleeping well, hearing her tossing and turning or pacing through the night. She’d been more vulnerable than ever, especially since the Alpha Ball.

His heart ached for her, truthfully. The fact his uncle had gotten to her first, tainting her impression of Alaric — it killed him.

Maybe if he’d just trusted her earlier, he could have had her on his side, and all of this would be completely reversed.

Instead, there was a huge wall between them, their distance colossal. At first, the bite on her neck had kept them close, but the inevitable drift soared right back in, taking her away again.

“Sienna?” he called out, stepping into the dining room, unsurprised to see her nursing a bottle of vodka. “What’s with the drinking at 3’o’clock?”

“Something wrong with it?” she slurred, already a few shots in, clearly.

“Well, most people don’t do it,” Asher chuckled, sitting in the chair next to her. The alcohol was strong on her, pummeling his nostrils with its harshness.

He had to really hold back his cringe.

“Today called for it,” she mumbled, reaching for another shot, which Asher quickly intercepted.

“How about we talk instead?” He set the vodka on the opposite side of the table, ignoring the way she glared at him.

“Nothing to talk about,” she dismissed, slumping forward on the table.

“There’s a lot to talk about,” Asher said softly, reaching over to rest his hand atop hers. “A lot has happened in the last week.”

“Oh has it?” Sienna scoffed, rolling her eyes.

Asher was silent for a moment, knowing he needed to approach this carefully.

“Talk to me about what’s on your mind,” Asher pressed, knowing what always happened whenever Sienna drank.

“I don’t want to talk,” she grumbled, and he knew exactly where this was heading.

He wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to resist it, this pattern they constantly fell back into. She never failed to draw him back in, a predator teasing her prey.

“What do you want?” He fell right into her trap, quite knowingly.

“To just forget,” she sighed, the scent of her arousal reaching his nose, immediately igniting his own.

Asher bit at the inside of his cheek, heat swelling inside him.

“Will you help me forget?” Sienna literally purred to him, fully aware of her effect on him at all times.

“Are we going to keep doing this? This ebb and flow thing?” Asher sighed, trying so hard to distract himself from his own growing arousal.

“Why not?” Sienna laughed absently, her shoulder shrugging lazily. “Might as well enjoy the time we have.”

Except she’d shut down the last attempt at the Alpha Ball, had she not?

“Please,” she breathed with need, and Asher was a goner.

“I really can’t say no,” he said in a gravelly tone, pushing up from the chair and grabbing her hand, leading them to her bedroom.

She tugged back at him, shaking her head. “Not my room. Yours.”

Her demand surprised him, but he obliged. He liked to think she wanted to smell his scent all around her in the sheets.

Very few people knew of his and Sienna’s real relationship. To the rest of Nightwind, they were a happily mated couple who obviously slept together in the same bed.

Wouldn’t that be nice?

Asher pushed open the door to his guest room, Sienna now clinging tightly to his arm.

Her lips rested at his ear, her voice full of heat. “I want to feel you all over me.”

He couldn’t stop the shiver that erupted across him, a moan catching in his throat. He, too, had been feeling so deprived of late, but hadn’t let himself fall into using Sienna.

It always made him feel guilty, and still, every time she tried, he would fall into it.

That was just the effect she had on him.

He fell atop her on the bed, her hips bucking up towards him as her face nuzzled into his sheets, confirming his suspicion that she’d wanted his scent wrapped around him during all of this.

She let out a moan that sent him absolutely over the edge, his length hardening instantly.

“I want to touch you,” Sienna groaned, reaching between his legs to feel him through his pants.

Oh god, her touch. It was everything he needed, all he wanted in the world.

He could stay there in that bed forever, all the lies and problems pushed to the side, and be happy.

“Then do,” he growled, reaching for the zipper of his pants to give her access.

“Turn on your back,” she instructed, and like a good dog, he flipped right over, watching hungrily as she straddled him.

She reached to free him from the confines of his pants, his length pulsing with need - for her. Only her.

Her hand wrapped around him at the shaft, running all the way up and back down him. It was his turn to buck against her, the shock of such pleasure taking him aback.

It spread through him, wave after wave, and he realized how starved he was for affection.

“How does it feel?” she whispered, her eyes twinkling with mischief, her touch on him starting to speed up, the pleasure building with it.

“Too good,” he gasped out, starving for more. The way her hand felt against him, rubbing so perfectly, like it was meant to be there.

“Tell me just how good,” she purred again, sending goosebumps erupting across him. This girl really did make him weak — she transformed him.

“Better than anything,” he groaned, pushing his hips into her hand, the pressure inside him rapidly building.

The truth was, what he’d experienced with Sienna was vastly different than anything in his past. Mia had been so long ago now that he could hardly compare the two women — and anyone else between then had been merely a fling.

This level of connection didn’t happen in one night stands. He’d forgotten all those women before, their features melting away into dust.

All he could see was Sienna. She’d all he wanted to see, anyway.

If only she could know that, huh? Missed your chance there, didn’t ya buddy?

“Are you close?” she grinned, leaning down closer to him, keeping her lips just far enough from his to taunt him.

“Getting there,” he panted. “Keep going.”

Sweat was beading at his temples, the scent of Sienna invading his senses, intoxicating him. He could no longer deny his feelings for her, yet he was trapped in the purgatory of his own mind.

“Do you want it harder?” she whispered teasingly, pumping her hand up and down him, his vision beginning to blur from the intensity of the growing pleasure.

“Yes — ” he managed to choke out, so entirely vulnerable to her in that moment.

His climax was just around the corner, and she knew it. She leaned down, brushing her lips against his cheekbone, her face hovering barely an inch from his.

Quite abruptly, her hand stopped moving, leaving him frozen in a painful moment of need as she rescinded it from him.

“What are you — ”

But she cut him off, her words chilling him to the bone.

“Tell me, Asher, do you know much about Alaric?”

Oh.