The Lycan Hunter (The Gardinian World Series) by Kelsey Jordan Page B

focused on her, she gave him the only thing – besides words – that conveyed how she felt.
    She punched him.
     

C HAPTER 13
    KYRAN SET HIS JAW and slanted his eyes down at his angry roommate. She had a right to be mad, but she would have to get over it. He had a lot of reasons that she couldn’t die, but most of them he didn’t want to admit to himself.
    “You might want to wait until your strength returns before you start hitting people. I think you could do better than that if you did.”
    “Why?” Alexis ran her hand through her midnight tresses. “Why would you save me after everything I told you?”
    Kyra n turned around and placed his hands against the wall, dropping his head into the spray. He stayed that way for a few minutes, trying to come up with a reason beyond him needing her to end the war, which wasn ’ t exactly why he’d he saved her anyway. He couldn’t tell her that the real reason he saved her was because he wanted her here with him . Not only was it stupid and impossible, but it would likely alienate her from him when he needed her to trust him.
    She snorted. “I hope you don’t think ignoring me will work. I’m a Hunter; I’m trained to have a great deal of patience.”
    “No, I didn ’ t think it would work.” He peered at her over his shoulders; his eyes squinted to keep the water that ran down his face from his eyes.
    “Then I need an answer, and it better be a fucking good one.”
    Kyran ran his hands over his hair and let his eyes fall shut. When he opened them, he caught the blatant desire in her eyes. He hid a smile behind the hair he let fall back into his face.
    “I saved you, because I need you here.”
    She punched him again, this time in his kidney. “You better come up with something better by the time you get out of here or you are going to have one hell of a problem.”
    He listened to her soft footfalls leave the room before he started to laugh. She might terrify Hunters, but without her weapons, she was nothing more than a child throwing a tantrum. It might be what he found so appealing about her. She didn ’ t back down when good sense should tell her that she couldn’t win.
    He finished his shower in relative peace, save the thoughts of what could happen if he answered her apparent desire with his own.
    Since he was now sharing his room with the temptation he had been trying to get rid of just the day before, he wore some cotton pajama pants to bed. He was lucky he even had them considering that he felt most at ease with fewer clothes on.
    He stepped out of his bathroom into his mostly dark bedroom. His desktop monitor displayed the camera feed of the male Hunter hanging limply from the shackles in one of the dungeon rooms. He was still unconscious from the sedative Ronan had given him.
    Kyran slipped into the bed, hoping he didn ’ t wake Alexis. He rolled onto his back and pulled at his pants. It had been so long since he had slept in the bed with clothes on that he had forgotten how annoying it was to have pants bunching and twisting around his legs.
    Alexis laughed softly at his side. “You don ’ t sleep with clothes on, do you?”
    “Sorry, I didn ’ t mean to wake you up.” He pulled at the pants again. “And no, I don’t.”
    “I wasn ’ t asleep. I was watching you avoid having to deal with me.” Alexis sat up against the headboard. “If you would feel better, you can sleep naked. It won't bother me. By the way, I ’ m still waiting on an explanation.”
    Kyran sighed and sat up against the headboard. “Have you ever wanted something that you can’t and shouldn’t have?”
    “Yeah, why?”
    “What did you do about it?”
    “Nothing yet.”
    Kyran glanced over to her, both wary and anticipating the possible implications of what she was saying.
    “What would you do if you wouldn ’ t suffer consequences ?” he asked.
    Alexis leaned over and kissed him. She kept it short, really more of a tease than a kiss, but it seared into Kyran,