Eve woke slowly, her body still heavy with exhaustion from yesterday’s brutal training session with Raphael. Every muscle ached in that deep, satisfying way that ca from being pushed to absolute limits and surviving. Her succubus nature humd contentedly beneath her skin, well-fed from the previous evening’s session with her mates before they’d let her sleep.
She reached out instinctively, expecting to find warm male bodies surrounding her.....Damian’s solid presence at her back, Damon’s restless energy beside her, Silas’s steady calm at the bed’s edge. But her hands t only cool sheets and empty space.
Eve’s eyes opened fully, taking in the master bedroom bathed in morning light. The bed was empty except for her. The bathroom door stood open, showing no one inside. Even the sitting area near the window was vacant.
They’d let her sleep in. Probably gone to handle pack business or prepare for today’s training session. The thought made her smile despite her disappointnt....they were learning to balance their protective instincts with her need for rest.
She was just about to throw back the covers and head for the shower when a knock sounded at the door.
"Co in," Eve called, expecting one of her mates or perhaps Catherine with breakfast.
Instead, a young oga nad Lora entered, carrying fresh towels. She was one of the newer pack mbers....quiet, efficient, always respectful. She bowed imdiately upon seeing Eve.
"Luna," Lora said, her voice soft and careful. "I apologize for disturbing you, but there is a visitor downstairs asking for you."
Eve sat up straighter, instantly more alert. A visitor? At this hour? "Who is it?"
"She said her na is Maya," Lora replied, setting the towels on the dresser. "She’s waiting in the main sitting room."
Eve’s heart stopped. Then started again, beating so hard it felt like it might burst from her chest.
"She said her na is Maya?" Eve repeated, needing to hear it again to believe it. "And she’s waiting downstairs?"
"Yes, Luna," Lora confird, her expression curious at Eve’s obvious shock.
Eve threw off the covers and practically ran to the bathroom. "Tell her to wait for . Tell her I’ll be there soon."
"Yes, Luna," Lora said, bowing again before leaving the room.
The mont the door closed, Eve moved through her morning routine at supernatural speed. She showered in record ti, barely bothering to dry off before pulling on clothes....fitted jeans and a soft sweater that Silas had bought her, sothing comfortable and casual. She ran a brush through her damp hair, didn’t bother with makeup, and was out the door within ten minutes.
Her heart pounded as she made her way through the estate’s hallways and down the grand staircase. Maya. Her best friend from the Eclipse, the one person besides Margaret who had truly known her during those dark months of dancing and surviving. The friend she’d abandoned without explanation when the brothers had claid her.
The guilt hit her like a physical blow. She’d just... disappeared. Hadn’t called, hadn’t texted, hadn’t given any warning. Had left Maya to wonder and worry and probably fear the worst.
Eve reached the sitting room and stopped in the doorway, her breath catching.
There she was.
Maya sat on one of the elegant sofas, looking completely out of place in the Blackwood estate’s refined sitting room. Her blonde hair was pulled back in her signature ssy bun, and she was wearing ripped jeans and a leather jacket that had seen better days. She was popping gum with that careless attitude Eve rembered so well, her legs crossed, one foot bouncing with restless energy.
She looked exactly the sa. Exactly as Eve rembered. Like the last four months hadn’t happened at all.
"Maya," Eve breathed, the na coming out choked with emotion.
Maya’s head snapped up, her bright green eyes finding Eve’s across the room. For a long mont, they just stared at each other....two friends separated by circumstances neither had fully controlled, seeing each other clearly for the first ti in months.
Then Maya stood, and Eve could see the tears already forming in her eyes.
"Eve," Maya said, her voice cracking on the single syllable.
Eve ran.
She crossed the sitting room at a speed that was definitely not human, but she didn’t care. She crashed into Maya, wrapping her arms around her friend in a hug so tight it probably hurt, but she couldn’t make herself let go.
"Maya," Eve sobbed against her friend’s shoulder. "Maya, is this really you?"
"It’s really ," Maya confird, her own arms coming around Eve just as tightly, her voice thick with tears. "It’s really , honey."
They stood there clinging to each other, both crying, both trying to speak and failing, both just holding on like letting go would make this mont disappear.
Finally, Maya pulled back enough to look at Eve’s face, her hands coming up to fra Eve’s tear-stained cheeks. Her own face was wet with tears, mascara running in dark tracks down her cheeks.
"You disappeared," Maya said, her voice laced with hurt and relief and lingering fear. "You just fucking disappeared, Eve. No call, no text, no explanation. Just gone."
Her grip on Eve’s face tightened slightly, not painful but desperate. "It took everything in ....everything....and a lot of convincing from the club manager not to declare you missing. I wanted to call the police. Wanted to file a report. But Rick kept saying to wait, that you’d probably just quit without notice, that dancers did that sotis."
"I’m sorry," Eve whispered, fresh tears streaming down her face. "I’m so sorry, Maya. I wanted to call you, wanted to explain, but everything happened so fast and I didn’t know how to...."
"It wasn’t until I went to see your mom at the hospital last week that she told you were fine," Maya interrupted, her voice catching. "That you’d been coming to check up on her regularly. That the Blackwood brothers were coming with you."
She pulled Eve into another fierce hug, burying her face in Eve’s shoulder. "She told you were okay. That you were safe. But Eve...." She pulled back again, searching Eve’s face with worried eyes. "....are you really okay? You look so different. What are the Blackwood brothers feeding you with?"
And Eve did look different. Maya could see it clearly now. Her best friend had always been beautiful, but there had been a hollowness to her beauty at the Eclipse....a kind of exhausted desperation that ca from dancing for survival, from doing what you had to do to get by.
That hollowness was gone.
Eve practically glowed now. Her skin had a luminous quality that hadn’t been there before. Her eyes were brighter, more alive. She’d gained weight in all the right places....curves that had been hidden by stress and poor nutrition now evident and healthy. Her hair was shinier, her posture more confident.
She looked like soone who was being taken care of. Being fed properly. Being protected. Being loved.
Eve laughed wetly, wiping at her tears with the back of her hand. "Definitely not fertilizer," she said, and the old joke.....their running gag about impossible beauty standards....made them both dissolve into tearful laughter.
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