Relief washed over her face, so raw and unguarded that it made his breath catch. “Thank you. I… Thank you.”
He helped her to her feet, then turned his attention to Dani. The girl was watching him with wide eyes, caught between wariness and hope. She was even smaller than he’d realized, her frame bird-thin beneath her sodden clothes.
“Can you walk?” he asked, gentling his voice as much as he was able.
Dani nodded, but when she tried to stand, her legs buckled beneath her. Jessa caught her but he saw the truth written in both their faces—they were at the end of their strength, pushed beyond what their bodies could sustain.
“May I carry her?”
He directed the question at Jessa, an acknowledgment of her authority over her sister, and she hesitated only a moment before nodding.
He gathered Dani into his arms as gently as he could, cradling her small body against his chest and wrapping his cloak over her. She was far too light, and her skin was cold even through the layers of wet cloth. His beast rumbled with protective concern, an instinct that surprised him with its intensity.
Pup,it whispered.Sick pup. Must protect.
“Hold onto my arm,” he told Jessa. “The terrain is treacherous in this weather, and you’re exhausted. Let me guide you.”
She didn’t argue, simply wrapped her arm around his and pressed close to his side. The contact sent warmth flooding through him despite the cold rain, and his beast settled into something almost like contentment.
Mine to protect,it murmured.Mine.
He pushed the thought aside and began the long climb back to his den with two fragile humans in his care and a storm raging around them. He didn’t know what had driven Jessa to flee her home. He didn’t know what she expected from him or how long she planned to stay.
But as her fingers tightened on his arm and her sister’s breathing steadied against his chest, he knew one thing with absolute certainty. He would keep them safe. Even if it cost him everything he had left.
CHAPTER 9
The world had narrowed to three points of sensation: the grip of her fingers on Tarek’s arm, the sound of Dani’s rattling breath next to her, and the relentless hammer of rain against her head.
Jessa couldn’t feel her feet anymore. She couldn’t feel much of anything, really, except the bone-deep cold that had settled into her marrow somewhere between the village and the fallen tree. She stumbled over rocks she couldn’t see, caught herself on roots that seemed to materialize from nowhere, and kept walking only because Tarek’s steady presence gave her something to hold on to.
Just a little farther,she told herself. The same words she’d been repeating for hours.Just a little farther, and then you can rest.
The climb seemed endless—a blur of rain and darkness and the occasional flash of lightning that turned the world stark white. She lost track of time, lost track of direction, lost track of everything except the arm beneath her fingers and the desperate need to keep moving.
When he finally stopped, she almost walked into his back.
“We’re here.”
His voice cut through the fog in her mind, and she blinked, trying to make sense of what she was seeing. A cliff face, dark and rain-slicked, with what looked like a natural overhang carved into the rock. No—not natural. There was a door. An actual wooden door, set into the stone like something out of a children’s story.
He shifted Dani’s weight in his arms and pushed the door open with his shoulder. Warm air rushed out to meet them, carrying the scent of woodsmoke and dried herbs, and she nearly wept with relief.
“Inside,” he said, stepping back to let her enter first. “Quickly.”
She stumbled through the doorway and stopped, swaying, as her eyes adjusted to the dim interior. A fire burned low in a stone hearth along one wall, casting flickering shadows across a space that was larger than she’d expected. Larger and… warmer. More lived-in.
A home,she thought dazedly.He’s made himself a home.
But she couldn’t process the details or make her exhausted mind catalogue what she was seeing. The only thing that mattered was the fireplace and the promise of heat it offered.
She took three stumbling steps towards it and her legs gave out. She would have collapsed on the stone floor if he hadn’t grabbed her arm, but she couldn’t bring herself to care. The fire was close—close enough to feel its warmth licking at her frozen skin—and that was all that mattered. She stumbled the last few feet to the hearth and collapsed beside it, her breath coming in harsh gasps.
Behind her, she heard Tarek’s footsteps and the soft sound of him setting Dani down on something. Then his boots appeared in her peripheral vision, and she felt him crouch beside her.
“Can you sit up?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. Her voice came out rough, scraped raw by cold and exhaustion. “Maybe. Give me a moment.”
