I’m shaking so hardthe broken floorboards rattle beneath me.
He crossesthe room in a blur, kneeling beside me in the splinters. His hand hovers over me. He’s terrified to touch me.
“Did he—”His voice cracks. “Please tell me he didn’t claim you. Tell me the bond is still ours.”
“No.”Tears stream down my face. “You stopped him. You came back for me.”
“Thank the Gods.”He drops his forehead to my lap, shoulders shaking with silent tears. “Thank the thraking Gods.”
I reach for him,my fingers tangling in the matted fur of his neck, and he pulls me into his arms, his face buried in the hollow of my neck.
“I’m so sorry,”he whispers. “I felt you screaming through the dark. I tried to break through, Lumi... I’m so sorry.”
“You saved me.”I sob into his shoulder, the scent of cinnamon drowning out everything else.
He pulls back,thumbs brushing the tears from my cheeks. His jaw is set, eyes studing my face with a new purpose.
“We have to go.Now. Before he comes back,” he says quietly.
A cramp shootsthrough my abdomen. I clench my teeth to keep from crying out.
“Your heat,”he whispers.
“It won’t stop,”I gasp. “I think what we did just made it worse.”
“I know,”he scoops me up off the floor, sheet and all. “We aren’t waiting another second, Saelûn.”
He carriesme over the debris, stepping over the life I thought he had built for us.
“Where are we going?”
“The sacred ground,”he says, pressing a kiss to my temple. “Where the stars can see. We seal this tonight, Lumi. So no shadow can ever stand between us again.”
48
Andrik POV-
I run.
The trees whip by in jagged slashes of white and dark, but the only thing I can focus on is her.
Naked in that bed. A stranger’s hands on her hips. A vermin wearing my face, about to?—
I growl, and the woods take notice. I can’t finish the thought. My hooves thud against the earth with every stride, breaking through the frozen ground. Something clutches at my chest from the inside. My breath stutters. The cold air that normally fuels me feels too thin—like the forest can’t feed me fast enough,
“Andrik,” Lumi’s voice is small, muffled by my chest. She‘s wrapped in the sheet I snatched from that godforsaken cottage, pressed so snug against me I can feel every panicked thud of her heart. “Slow down... please.”
I can’t. If I slow down, the images will catch up. If I slow down, I’ll turn back. I’ll go back to what’s left of that house and tear him apart until there‘s nothing left but a red stain on the snow.
“Andrik, look at me.”
Her hand presses to my chest, right over my heart. The heat from her palm seeps through my fur, and the world slams into focus.
I halt.
We’re deep in the heart of the forest now. Far away from what happened. But as I look down at her, I know it will never be far enough. The memory of him touching her is a poison I’ll carry forever.
“I’m sorry,” I rasp, my grip loosening just enough so she can breathe. “I’m sorry, I just—I need to get you somewhere safe. Somewhere he can’t reach. Somewhere it’s only us.”
