“Where’s Dani?” she asked, when she could finally speak again.
“Asleep. She refused to leave your side for the first twelve hours—I had to carry her to bed when she finally passed out.” A ghost of a smile. “She’s fiercer than she looks.”
“Family trait.”
“Clearly.”
She leaned into his warmth, letting exhaustion pull at her again. But this time it was a gentle tug, the natural weariness of a body that had fought hard and won.
“Stay with me?” she murmured.
“Always.” He shifted them both so she was cradled against his chest, her head tucked beneath his chin. “Sleep now. I’ll be here when you wake.”
She believed him.
CHAPTER 18
Tarek watched Jessa sleep.
The fever had broken fully now, her skin returning to its normal warmth rather than the terrifying furnace heat of the previous day. Her breathing came soft and even, her chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm beneath the furs. The shadows under her eyes had faded, and the greyish pallor that had gripped her during the worst of the venom’s assault had given way to healthy color in her cheeks.
She was going to live.
He’d known it intellectually for hours—he’d tracked her temperature, monitored her pulse, and watched as her body finally won its battle against the poison. But the knowledge hadn’t truly penetrated until now, sitting vigil in the predawn darkness while the fire crackled low and the mountain slept around them.
She’s going to live.
His beast stirred at the thought, a rumble of fierce satisfaction deep in his chest.Ours. Safe. Protected.
For once, Tarek didn’t argue.
The past thirty-six hours had stripped away every lie he’d told himself. Every careful distance he’d maintained, every wall he’d built between his heart and hers—all of it had crumbled the moment she’d collapsed in his arms, her eyes rolling back as the venom took hold.
He’d carried her through the forest at a dead run, her limp body cradled against his chest, his heart pounding with a terror he’d never felt before.
His hands still remembered the weight of her. Still trembled with the phantom sensation of her body growing cold, her breathing turning shallow, her lips taking on that awful bluish tinge that meant death was circling close.
He’d nearly lost her.
The realization sat in his chest like a stone, heavy and undeniable. He could no longer pretend that she was merely a guest in his home, a temporary presence he could survive losing. He could no longer tell himself that the feelings she stirred were something he could walk away from when the time came.
There would be no walking away.
Whatever little he had—this den carved from the mountain, his skills with herbs and healing, the broken pieces of the male he’d once been—all of it belonged to her now. Had belonged to her, perhaps, from the moment she’d looked at him in the forest without fear.
Mate,his beast whispered.
Yes. That was what she was. What she’d become, somewhere between their first meeting and this moment of quiet vigil. He’dfought against acknowledging it, terrified of what it meant, of what it would require him to reveal. But there was no more fighting.
Jessa Allenby owned him, heart and soul.
A soft sound from the doorway made him look up. Dani stood there in her sleeping shift, her dark hair tangled from sleep, her blue eyes huge in the firelight.
“Is she okay?”
“She’s resting.” He kept his voice low. “The danger has passed.”
Dani crept closer. She’d been so brave through the whole ordeal—braver than many warriors Tarek had known. When he’d burst into the den carrying her unconscious sister, even when Jessa’s fever had spiked and she’d thrashed and moaned, Dani hadn’t run or hidden or dissolved into useless hysterics.
