Page 271 of Pucking Feral: Part Two

I set her mug beside her on the counter.

"Thank you," she says, wrapping both hands around it.

I take a sip of mine. Too hot. Burns the roof of my mouth. I drink more anyway.

"Can I ask you something?" I say.

She looks up.

"What did you see when you first looked at me?" I set my mug down. "In the tunnels."

She hums thoughtfully, blowing on her tea to cool it. Her ocean eyes are dark in the unlit kitchen, the faint glow from the stove's pilot light making them look more blue than green. The same glow shines on the iridescent marks over her scar.

"Honestly?" she asks.

"I wouldn't ask otherwise."

"I saw a threat." She takes a sip. "An unknown alpha who appeared out of nowhere while I was wet, naked, and vulnerable. So I hit you with a fire extinguisher."

"Fair."

"Very fair. You went down like a sack of bricks, by the way."

"I'm aware." My fingers drift to the thin scar on my temple, a smirk tugging at my lips. "You have excellent aim."

"Thank you." She grins into her mug. "I practiced on Whiskey next. With a hockey stick."

"He mentioned."

The grin fades into an actual smile that sets me on edge.

Why is she smiling at me?

She sets her tea down and looks at me, lips pursed the way she always does when she wants to think about what she's saying next. When she wants to say something she means, and it's probably going to cut straight to the marrow.

"That's not what I see now," she says.

Here it is.

"What do you see now?"

"Someone who's down here at four in the morning because he can't close his eyes without seeing something terrible."

My throat tightens.

"I don't think you're a threat to me, Valek."

"You're wrong."

She holds my gaze. "A threat wouldn't tell me that."

I let out a long, low sigh. "I'm not safe, Ivy."

She shrugs. "Dangerous doesn't scare me. Cruel scares me. And you're not cruel."

I set my mug down harder than I mean to. "You don't know what I am."

"Then tell me."