My training kicks in, and I open myself up to any extra sounds or sensations. I cannot go in blind. If she is with the dyre wolf, I must prepare for a fight.
Easing a dagger out of my boot, I move with silent ease towards an archway where the orange glow spills.
As I stand a few feet from the arch, I scan the room for her through the bond. My body heats and leaves an intensity moving through mylimbs as I focus on the small female with long, silken hair. For all intents and purposes, she seems well, besides… I tilt my head, trying to read a faint thud that is moving through my skull that is not mine.She’s hurt!
The bond makes its anger known and propels me to move within the doorway.
Glistening chestnut hair is the first thing I notice as I see my female bent over a table, taking large spoonfuls of a liquid into her mouth.
My senses reach out but detect no others in the room. I do, however, pick up the unmistakable smell of wolf within the space.
At the unpleasant scent, my teeth bare, and my bonded halts the spoon halfway to her lips.
She’s not fae. I knew that the first rhythm I was close enough to tell whether she was male or female.Human, then.That knowledge alone should be enough to send me through a loop, but knowing she is one of them doesn’t make any difference to the beating of my heart for her.Only her.
In all the centuries of the fae’s existence, I’ve never heard a story of a fae bonding with another God’s creation. And after what happened in Haven, it is blasphemy to talk of the creatures who stole our home.
The Goddess does not seem to have the same affinity towards the species as her people do. Otherwise, this bond would never exist.
Boring my eyes into the side of my bonded’s head, I want nothing more than to let resentment take me and hold me in its embrace, but all I can feel is an overwhelming sense of peace like the Goddess has brought me home.
I’m thoroughly fucked.
eighteen
Dove
My hand stills asthe small hairs on my arms rise. Tingles race throughout my chest, sparking an awareness that defies logic.
Someone is here. Someone I know.
But this is not Gideon, not my beast.
He went to report to Castor after bringing me some soup and boy’s brown breeches, navy blue blouse and boots. I do not begrudge the food and the clothing, having been in a thin gown covered in blood most of the moonlight.Not the greatest look.
I didtell him I was likely to flee in his absence, but he wasn’t too concerned. He gave me plenty of side-eye and stated thatif he could find me once, he would find me again. I have no doubts.
As my tummy grumbles from barely being able to eat, knowing what is in store for at first light, I force down soup and think of an action plan.
Until this presence…
This unknown entity changes the very way my body reacts. My heart chants. My blood palpitates.
I place the spoon back in my bowl and press on my chest, frowning.
“You feel it, too.” It’s not a question but a statement, rolling off the tongue in a smooth, lilting accent.
I cannot look. If I look, everything will change.I feel it. This ache will no longer be a simple pain I can ignore like all the others I’ve locked tight. If I turn my head, this gnawing feeling that has been carving its way into my body since my twenty-second rotation will be known. It will have power, and I can’t let it have me.I have nothing left to give.
The person behind me does not have such qualms as they move closer to my frozen body. The particles that make up the air that I breathe sizzle and pop with every step they move.
“Look at me.” A request from my…I don’t even knowwhathe is.Goddess. This must be her doing. Her song. Nothing else explains this person’s presence here, in the wolf’s lair.
I cannot ignore him. It’s physically impossible. My body yells at me to turn, to face him, his smooth melodic voice lulling my being into a false sense of security.
Fine!I breathe in deeply and stand, facing the stranger who sets my body alight in all the annoyingly right ways.
The air leaves my lungs, and I don’t know if I’ll ever breathe again. “You?” I rasp out.
