“It’ll be alright, little Firebrand.”
“No, it won’t,” I swiped at my face as tears leaked down my cheeks despite my attempts to stop them.“I’m so sorry.”
“Shh,” he hushed me, pulling me down until my head was resting on his chest, the pounding of his heart a small comfort even as his body was wracked with tremors.“We’ll just rest a while.”
“Are you in pain?”I asked, stroking his ribs, wishing there was anything I could do.
He chuckled, the sound cutting off as his torso tightened and he let out a gasp.
“Not the worst I’ve experienced.”Leave it to Dargo to downplay his suffering even as he was dying.
“This is all my fault.”I wrapped my arm around his waist, clinging to him like I could heal him through sheer force of will.Even laying in the dirt, venom coursing through his body, he seemed larger than life, too powerful to die from a single bite.
“Why did you leave, Taz?”
I lifted my head and met his glassy eyes, choking on a wave of guilt.
“I just couldn’t see how it was going to work between us,” I admitted, wishing I could lie and say I hadn’t been running away from him.
“My gentling didn’t please you?”
I shook my head.“That’s not it at all.It was really good between us, but a relationship is more than sex, and I’m not good at all the other stuff.”
His eyes closed and he sighed.
“I don’t understand you, female.”
A bitter laugh bubbled up past my tears and I pressed my forehead to his chest.
“I don’t understand me, either.”
“I would have done whatever you asked of me.I still will, if you’ll stay.”His voice was slurring but the sentiment behind his words was like a slap to the face.I hadn’t asked anything of him.I hadn’t talked to him about how I was feeling or tried to stick it out at all.
I’d gotten spooked by how quickly I’d fallen for him and I’d run.
Like a fucking coward, I’d bolted, leaving behind a male who would have done anything to keep me happy.Even get himself killed protecting me from a percer I’d walked into.
“I’ll stay,” I whispered, pressing a kiss to his pec.That promise didn’t hold a lot of weight now, with his skin burning with fever under my cheek and his body failing to a lethal dose of venom.
“I love you, little Firebrand.In a way I couldn’t have imagined before I met you.”
His words twisted my insides and I cried against his chest as he went limp.The only sign of life was the shaky, slow breaths he took.I laid next to him for hours, listening to his heartbeat, holding onto him.Every once in a while he’d surface, stroke my hair and murmur something sweet before he passed out again.
Every time his eyes closed again I was sure it would be the last time, and I’d struggle to breathe through the bolt of fear in my gut.There were so many things I needed to tell him, how much I loved to bicker with him, that I loved that he called me Firebrand, and how I appreciated how cheerful he was no matter the circumstance.
I needed to thank him for saving me yet again when it was my fault I was in danger, just like the first time.
Most of all, I needed to tell him that I loved him, and I was sorry I hadn’t given him a real chance.He deserved a better mate than a closed off angry girl that couldn’t look past her walls to see the amazing male that loved her.Bad attitude and all.He’d never once said he didn’t like a single part of me, but I’d held onto the certainty he’d come to dislike me.
Before him, everyone in my life had gotten sick of me real fast, writing me off and moving on with their lives.But none of those people had ever sworn to be with me forever, or risked their life to keep me safe.
By the time the sun rose, I had a list a mile long of things I wished I could redo and when Dargo’s eyes opened I grabbed his face, praying he was conscious enough to understand me.
“I love you,” I said, forcing every ounce of certainty I felt into the words.“I love you, and I’m happy you’re my mate.If I could undo today I would.”
His eyes were clearer than they had been for hours and I felt a little flutter of hope that he might survive this.
“You won’t run again?”he asked, hands grasping my thigh weakly, thumbs making soothing circles as he looked up at me.
