o

f room that made you feel unde

shoes that had seen even worse ones, and the room, with its long polished table and its candelabras and it

ed a small bow that managed to exclud

t the head

arresting as it was. He was looking at something on the table in front of him, and he didn't look up

ed t

rmly either. Just a word, like sit was the most natural thing i

me to. Because my feet hurt a

d seen in four years collectively, roasted meats and steaming vegetables and things in small dishes that I couldn't name but

the oldest of the women

ng," I

looked

then it was just the two of us and approximately forty dishes ne

ot hungry

n't sa

aid no

ot hungry are d

uth. Not quite a smile. More like the gho

ant to eat

adable attention that I was beginning to find more unsettling than anger would

since before the

im. "How do y

hange, but something underneath it did, a tightening, brief and cont

e one who got to define what was and wasn't acceptable for wh

have an opinion about," I said, "given t

d

ke you as its own cate

aid carefully, "as a

forward. You walked into that building and you took me and you put me in your car and drove

ng light across the table, and somewhere outside, something moved in

g for you for two years and found you on a platform a

lt suddenly

ears,"

es

ooking for me

es

hy

ong moment. Then he sai

refusing to examine since the moment his gaze had found mine across the auction house. Since the sparks that had moved through me when his hand closed around my wris

t," I

of

we you anything. You can tell yourself whatever story you need to tell yourself about why you took me, but that's

tood

t t but across a dinner table in a quiet room it hit differently, all that height

said simply w

ked. "

was necessary doesn't change the experience of it." He held my gaze

red a

t with whatever smells best to

cause I had prepared for anger or arrogance or the particular condescension of men who believed that owning something me

of something that might, in better lighting, have been dry humour, "

ng a conversa

onversation with me for

rritatingly

egetables that smelled extraordinary, and I served myself a portion, and I at

silence for a while. Him watchin

Your friends ar

saw them

thing flickered in my ch

quiet

il

like he was placing it somewh

idered. Not are your friends comfortable but is Lilly alright, and something abo

said. "She always has

dded

. "Why do you call

hat's what

an Om

held mine. "Rank isn't t

t that longer

e wolf," I said

alks to

n trying to di

mile again. "I k

d been refusing to examine. The pull low and certain and nothing like the faint, romantic notion I had grown up associating with the concept of fated mates. Thi

too

something I had planned to say and which cam

ike it was instinct, and the formali

of

ed at t

he said. "This mor

urn around

you to k

door frame, not quite able to make myself l

change anyth

aid. "I'm tell

le

ood panelling. I walked without a destination, which was something I used to do at the slave house when the walls

lot to s

nearly walked directly

ho

leased it and stepped back with both hands up. He was grinning

sounding particularl

htened. "Where d

He nodded behind him.

whe

's a lon

ht, but where Draco was carved from something cold and certain, Xavier had a warmth to him that sat eas

Xavier,"

He tilted his head

in

say anythin

gs." I paused. "None

's good." He glanced down the hallway. "He's not good at.." he seemed to search for the word, " peo

me we're getting ma

"That's a him thing. He's work

k you," I said. "For getting them o

his face, it was g

the car. He let me think.." I

He doesn't explain himself much.

ny are

in the way that only people who had known someo

ost s

t, Xavier

fter me: "He was looking for you for two years, you know. Not just

t wal

uld know," he added,

. But I didn't f

who had walked into an auction house and crossed a room full of bowed heads to reach me specifically, who had told me I know when I accused him of taking me

what kind of

have an

since the auction, I th