I stumble, but strong hands catch my waist before I hit the ground. His fingers sear through the fabric of my nightgown, leaving tingles in their wake. Everywhere he touches me feels branded by ice. I spin to look, but there's nothing there.
My pulse thrums in the silence. Goosebumps rise along my skin. A breath grazes the back of my neck. Heat settles heavily in my hips. A single clawed finger drags slowly from my wrist to my shoulder. My breath catches. His touch is as possessive as it is gentle. My lips part on a soft gasp. I lean into his touch, desperate to feel more. But as quickly as he appeared, he's gone, and the heat vanishes. The weight behind me disappears, but myskin aches where he touched me—like ice licking nerves that had only just begun to bloom.
I spin again, searching the trees, my pulse pounding loudly in my ears.
“Please,” I whisper to the dark. “Come back.”
But the wind is the only thing that answers, stirring the hem of my nightgown, spreading chills across my skin.
A branch sways to my left. My eyes snap in that direction, and this time I see a tall silhouette peeking out from behind a tree. And although I can’t see his face, there’s something achingly familiar about him.
I squint my eyes, his shape flickers, slipping through my mind before it can fully form. He’s watching me.
“Why won’t you come out?” I ask, my voice sounds so small in the vast distance between us.
A shimmering blue thread appears, and suddenly I feel it— the pull. I take one step forward. Then another. The thread stretches straight from his chest to mine, pulsing faintly like a heartbeat.
It tugs again, and something in my heart aches at the phantom pull connecting us.
I don’t understand.
I take another shaky step forward, but with each one, his shadow begins to fade.
“No—wait!”
Just as I’m about to reach him, the mirage shatters, and I’m left alone once again.
“Why are you doing this?”
I turn to leave the forest when a cool hand presses me face-first against the nearest tree, claws biting softly into my skin. His hand snakes around my body and grabs my throat.
Fangs trail down my neck as his knee nudges my thighs apart. Icy breath fans over my heated skin.
“Saelûn, I have waited so long for you,” he rasps behind my ear.
His scent fills my lungs as my head falls back to rest on his shoulder. Arousal courses through my body like wildfire. His other hand settles low on my hip, and my knees buckle like gravity forgot me the moment his body found mine. He holds me up like I weigh nothing at all. His fangs drag lower, grazing the curve where my neck meets my shoulder.
I reach for him, but he catches me before I can touch him. He pins both of my hands above my head against the rough bark.
His fangs sink just a little deeper, and a moan slips free. A low purr rumbles from his chest, vibrating through mine like a secret only our bodies know.
“Do you want me to bite you,Saelûn?”
Please.
But all I can get out is a whimper.
His hips rock into mine lazily, and I feel him—thick and hard pressing exactly where I ache most.
His hand slides down my body and hooks beneath my knee. He lifts slowly, until my leg is bent and spread wide, splayed against the bark. My nightgown hitches above my hips, leaving me completely exposed to him. Wetness drips down my thigh as he settles closer between them.
“Please,” I arch into him. “Please touch me.”
“Is that what you want,Saelûn? You want your mate to touch you?”
Mate. The word flickers through my mind, but I can't focus on that right now.
“Yes.” I pant.
