But the bond was stronger.
And the bond wanted him whole.
I don't know how long it took. Minutes. Hours. Time had stopped meaning anything. I just held on—arms wrapped around a body that was changing shape, face pressed against fur that was becoming skin, heart pounding in time with his.
And then, finally, it was over.
The man in my arms was shaking.
He was naked. His skin was pale from years without sunlight, stretched over bones that stood out too sharply. Scars I hadn't been able to see in wolf form traced across his back, his shoulders, his arms. Evidence of old wounds. Old violence.
His hair was dark. Longer than it should be. Matted and tangled from years in wolf form.
His eyes—when they finally opened—were the same gold they'd always been. But different now. Aware. Present.
Human.
He looked at me.
Through me.
And his mouth opened. His lips moved. His vocal cords—unused for years, atrophied and raw—produced a sound that was barely more than a rasp.
But I heard it.
One word.
"...stay."
I was crying. I didn't know when I'd started. The tears were streaming down my face, and my voice was wrecked, and my whole body was shaking almost as hard as his.
"I'm staying," I said. "I'm not going anywhere. I promise. I'm staying."
His eyes closed.
His body went limp.
And Stone—the feral who had rather died than surrender, the wolf who had fought the bond with everything he had, the man who had been lost for years in a prison of his own making—collapsed into my arms.
I held him tightly as we sank to the floor, his weight pulling us both down.
The door behind us burst open. James. Neal. Others I couldn't see. Voices, footsteps rushing, hands trying to pull me away.
I didn't let go.
"He's okay," I said. Or tried to say. The words came out broken. "He's okay. He shifted. He's human. He's—"
Neal was there. Checking vitals. Barking orders. Someone was wrapping a blanket around Stone's unconscious form. Someone else was trying to get me to move, to let go.
I couldn't let go.
"Lumi." James's voice. Close. Scared. "Lumi, you're bleeding."
I felt it now. Shallow wounds where Stone's teeth had broken skin.
"It's fine," I said. "I'm fine. He's—"
"He's alive and stabilizing." Neal's voice. Shaking with something I'd never heard from him before. Relief, maybe. Or shock.
