Her own muscles went rigid, stomach curdling as words she’d kept imprisoned for decades started crawling up her throat. Parts of the truths she’d sworn to never utter.
No. No, no, no.
“I have secrets, Brand.” The admission fell out before her wiser half could claw it back. “Dark and messy and complicated. When they find out…” She pulled away to sit up and stare across the cave, hating the icy loneliness already creeping in.
Bleeding arseholes.
The wall she’d beat against mere hours ago taunted her, and Lunara dropped her gaze, gathering her bodice together and pretending it was urgent she button it up again.
Before she could finish, Brand swung her into his lap to straddle him. The new position forced her to look at him, to bare an entirely different part of herself that Lunara wasn’t sure she was ready for anyone to see.
“I know.” He made no comment about her state, only smoothing the linen down to cover her, his palm warm through the layers. “I’d have to be an idiot of the highest order not to have noticed there wassomething.” His smile was rueful, shy. “As long as you didn’t torture any innocents, or murder a litter of puppies out of spite, I don’t really care what those secrets are.”
“You will. You’ll?—”
His arms came around her, his forehead pressed to hers. “What is any of it in the face of our mating?”
Lunara’s chest constricted. It couldn’t possibly be that simple. Nothing was ever so straightforward.
Her body couldn’t decide what to do. With so many years spent running and hiding, pretending she was dead, the desire to bolt was second nature. Easy. Familiar.
So why did she find herself wanting to lean in and risk everything?
Brand should have recoiled on hearing she had something to hide, giving her an excuse to disappear. To guard her heart and remain at least somewhat intact. Instead, he was offering her life. A future that wouldn’t be spent alone in darkness.
Sisters save her, but Lunara wanted it so desperately that she was almost sick with longing, the consequences be damned.
‘Do not fear…’
“Swear to me…” Lunara swallowed, her lungs so tight with terror she could hardly speak. “Swear to me that I can trust you. Please. I can’t give my heart just to be left hollow when you hear the truth and… and turn away from me because you decide it isn’t worth it. I’m already petrified. Being tossed aside…” She shook her head, huffing. “I know what I’m asking for, wanting your oath but giving nothing. That it’s probably too much. That I’m no one. That?—”
Brand growled. “No one? Luna.” He gripped her nape, his markings lighting up in a sudden flash. “There isno onein this world above you now.No onemore important. I will swear to anything you ask and count it a privilege. A blessing, for being able to say mymatehas found me worthy of her needs, however challenging. So yes, you have my vow. On the Sisters, I swear it. But”—he gave her a little shake, his nose grazing hers—“only when you’re ready. Only if you feel it’s necessary or have a desire to share. As much as you are trying to find your trust, know that you already have mine. I know you, even if I don’t know everythingaboutyou.”
Something small and broken within Lunara shifted, as if jagged pieces fell back together and suddenly weren’t cutting so deep.
“I’ve been alone for so long.” Her voice cracked, a ghost of itself. “I don’t know what to do. How to be.” It hurt to say, but he deserved the small admission.
“Does anyone ever really know what they’re doing?” Brand asked quietly. “I certainly don’t, most of the time.” He lifted her hand and placed a soft kiss on her palm before laying it against his chest. Her touch was met with a pounding, staccato rhythm—a beat that matched the furious hammering within her exactly and had a lump forming in her throat. “But I do know that this, here, is for you. That I’ve never felt its like, as though my heart is trying to break me apart in order to get to you. That it’s yours.”
That’s… He… This is…
“Perhaps we could figure out the rest together.”
He looked so vulnerable as he said it that she couldn’t help but press her mouth to his. Anything to erase that growing uncertainty from his brow.
The kiss was tentative at first, a brush meant only to soothe. But as it heated, his teeth grazing her lower lip, her fingers tangling in his hair….
There was no such thing as Elder Councils or Keepers. No such thing as fear or hurt or loneliness. As the ache of her bones. Brand’s words, his touch, erased all of it, filling the newly vacated spaces with dangerous things like promises and new dreams. A sense of rightness that refused to be ignored.
He said they could figure it out, and shebelieved him.
So, reveling in the possessive clamp of his hands on her body, Lunara gave in.
She dug her nails into his chest, leaving the last of her trepidation there in biting crescents. “Together,” she whispered against his lips, panting.
His eyes snapped open, searching hers. “Do you mean it? You’re sure?”
The most monumental question she’d ever been asked.
