Page 65 of Daughter of Garnet

"I will be waiting for my Gods-Blessed scent match, as they intended."

"Have a good evening, Hierophant."

The click of dress shoes on the concrete floor fades as they move away from us, culminating in the crash of heavy doors, but I still don't move.

Cameron finds me right inside the doorway and squats in front of me. He takes me by the chin and tilts my face to his. "I imagine you have more questions than ever. Come, then." He stands, leaving me gaping in the doorway, and grabs the portrait of Ilota. When I'm still on the floor, he holds his hand out to me.

The chapel is beautiful, capturing my attention as he leads me through it and toward a set of stairs. He unlocks the door and leads me by the hand up, and up, until we're in an apartment at the very top of the steeple.

An unmade bed sits in the middle of the room with a chest of drawers directly across from it. There is a desk with a notebook on the top and a worn stool facing the window. Cameron stands back as I examine his domain. The view from his window is beautiful, and, if I squint, I can see my building from here.

No personal effects line the walls, and no clothing is on the floor. The room is soulless, not at all what I would have expected from Cameron.

He places the portrait of Ilota on his desk, and I hover over it, drawn like a moth to her fiery visage.

"You said you destroyed this?"

"I did."

I roll the garnet pendant between my fingers. "Because of this?"

He nods. "It won't conceal you forever, you know."

"Conceal me?"

The Alpha doesn't strike me as the type of man to fidget, but he keeps pulling at the collar of his shirt. "The pendant. It hides that you're an Omega. For now."

"How does it do that?" I appreciate that we're not pretending that he doesn't know I'm an Omega. After everything that has transpired this evening, I just want some answers, and then I want to sleep for a week.

"How do the stones pass on the Gods' Blessings? Because they will it." He takes slow, measured steps across the room to me and takes the pendant in his hand. "May I?"

I don't know what he's asking, but I nod anyway. He reaches behind my head, unclasps the necklace, and places it on his desk. I feel no different without it.

Cameron takes a step closer and presses his forehead to mine. Memories of our bodies pressed together in the woods come rushing back, and I drown in his sweet, toffee scent.

"The thought first crossed my mind when I saw you in the library. I couldn't leave you alone after that. I needed to know where you were, what you were doing, at all times, but I swore to myself I would keep my distance." He chuckles. "That didn't last long. I convinced myself that I was still keeping my distance as long as you never saw me leave the notes."

"I knew they were from you."

"I wanted you to." As he speaks, he moves his mouth to rest just over my lips, not touching, and he breathes me in as if I am the only oxygen he needs. "I couldn't stay away from you. I never stood a chance."

His proximity is taking every thought from my mind. I am overwhelmed with his presence, the heaviness of his Alpha nature wrapping me like a blanket and pulling the tension from my limbs.

"You know I belong to you, don't you, lovely Zoe?"

Do I know that?

My dragon has been quiet since I got here, but now she pushes against my mind. It feels different from the times she wants me to shift. She wants me to tell me something, but we're not in sync enough for me to know what it is.

Cameron's eyes brighten, the pupils slitting, before he jerks away from me, shoulders twitching and shuddering.

"Are you okay?" I reach for him, and he scrambles backward, holding his hand up.

"Give me a moment."

My dragon is pissed. I can feel her forcing her way to the forefront, and I know the only thing keeping me in this form is that I'd destroy the chapel if I shifted now. "What's wrong?"

"It's my…" I watch as the unnatural light of his beast leaves his eyes and his pupils return to their natural round shape. "My beast. He wants to meet yours."