He had his chance, a voice hissed in my ear.
I could tell myself that all I wanted. I was still on tenterhooks as I focused on that mating bond, waiting to feel if it snapped and I stopped feeling anything at all, or if the adrenaline and intensity and concern would ebb into calm as whatever danger passed and Drake remained okay.
Please let him be all right, I found myself praying.
I waited, and waited, with no idea how long it would last.
Eventually, though, the adrenaline did begin to subside, replaced with anger and all sorts of other emotions that I struggled to parse from one another. I let out a deep, shaking breath as I sank back into the couch, surprised at just how relieved I was. Drake was all right. He was okay.
That didn’t stop me from waiting anxiously for him. Every moment it took for him to get home was another moment of twisting anxiety. I waited, staring at the door.
Finally, the door creaked open. Drake stepped in, scraped and exhausted, but whole.
All the anxiety that had been plaguing my every thought dissipated. It was like a massive weight had flown off my chest. I hadn’t realized until now that part of me had expected not to see Drake again. That, despite all his reassurances and the fact that I could feel him through the bond, I had been certain I would never see him again.
“Thank God.” I flung my arms around him before I realized what I was doing, holding him tight and breathing in his scent. I could have stayed like that forever.
“Oof,” he grunted as he took a half step back when I barreled into him. After a moment of shock, he wrapped his arms around me, holding tight.
“I’m here,” he muttered, a little bit of awkwardness in the words, as if he wasn’t entirely certain how to provide comfort here. I held onto him, nestling against his chest without realizing it. I could have stayed in his arms forever.
Eventually, though, he stepped back. I sucked in a breath as I took in his appearance. He had a deep slash over one eye and another on his cheek. He was covered in dirt and bruises. But his eyes were alert and darting all over me, as if I was the one who needed worrying over.
“How are you feeling?” he asked.
I nearly burst into laughter. I might have, just to relieve the tension, if I hadn’t been so worried.
“Me? What about you?” Without realizing I was doing it, my hand reached out, and my thumb brushed against the cut running along his cheek. “I’m not the one who looks like they got thrown into a meat grinder.”
“Just about,” he grumbled.
“What happened?”
He told me about Azaret, his tone calm and slightly surly, the way it normally was. I listened with growing horror as the story continued.
“God,” I muttered when he was finished. “That’s awful.” I ran my fingers through my hand as I stepped back and ran my fingers through my hair. I let out a deep breath as I ran my hand across my face, still trying to process everything he had just said. “I’m so glad you’re all right.”
He gave a brusque nod, his eyes still scanning my body, searching me up and down as if looking for something unseen. “What about you?”
“What about me?”
He raised his eyebrows. “I mean that you’re pale as a sheet and you look like you’ve been going crazy since I left you.”
I willed the blush threatening to spill across my face to stop. I didn’t want him to know how worried I’d been, because I didn’t want to have to admit how I’d been going out of my mind with worry. This was Drake. I had told myself I would stop caring. And yet, I’d done nothing the last however many hours but go out of my mind with worry.
I gave a smile and waved my hand dismissively. “Oh, it was nothing,” I said. “Everything was fine. I just hate not knowing what’s going on. Why don’t I fix you something to drink? Or get the first aid kit.”
I turned and started to walk away.
He caught my fingers, tugging me back around so I had to look at him. My heart turned into a jackhammer as I craned my neck up, took in that serious expression in his eyes, and all across his face.
“Liv, I can sense your emotions through the bond,” he said. “I’ve felt your fear and anxiety for the past hour. You don’t have to pretend.”
My mouth went dry, my skin burning where he held me. I looked up into his eyes and felt myself pinned by the intensity there. My breath caught for a moment.
I wasn’t sure how long we stayed like that, neither of us moving, both of us waiting for the other to say something. Drake waited, eyebrows raised.
“I was just being silly,” I muttered, suddenly self-conscious. “That’s all.”
