Shawn caught up with him at the edge of the water, carrying his unconscious mate in his arms, and splashed into the frigid depths alongside Peter.
The shock made him lose his breath. No. If he blacked out, he’d drown. In a panic, he tried to swim back to shore, but his head sunk below the water. He howled, knowing Shawn was close by, but his wolf was in so much pain, he wasn’t thinking. The water rushed into his lungs. So much.Can’t breathe.
“Peter!”
Soft hands framed his face. Delicate fingers fluttered over his cheeks. His mate. She smelled like home. Sweet and fresh and very much his.
Sameen.
He couldn’t form words. Halfway between the nightmare and reality, he might as well still have been in wolf form for all the control he had over his body.
“Peter, look at me.” Her voice brought him back. The demand. The urgency. The hint of fear. He couldn’t let her be afraid. Ever. Not when he had the power to soothe her.
Wrapping his arms around her, he buried his face in her neck. “Bad dream,” he managed.
“It sounded like you were choking.”
“Drowning.” He shuddered, and Sameen kissed his burned and mangled shoulder. Again, and again, she followed the scars up his neck, and damn if she didn’t kiss the exact spot that could—when the moon was full—seal their bond. It wasn’t required. At least not according to Liam. He and Caitlin had bonded slowly, over the weeks they spent together in Dublin years ago. Would it work the same with Sameen?
Peter wasn’t born a wolf like Cade, Liam, and Livie. He’d been bitten as a teenager. That made him weaker than the others. Guaranteed he’d never be an alpha—not that he’d ever wanted to be.
“Tell me?” she asked. Settling closer to him, her forehead touching his, she played with his hair. It had gotten too long these past months, but if Sameen liked it this way, he’d keep it.
“It’s not a story you want to hear, sweetheart.” Peter checked the bedside clock. Regulus had outfitted the mansion with every modern convenience, yet also seemed to obsess over antiques. And timepieces. In one of the bureau drawers, Peter had found a tray of twenty-five vintage watches, each probably worth more than the second-hand Audi he’d lusted after back in Seattle. The one he’d been about to buy just before Cade ordered him to Ireland.
“You know what happened to me,” she whispered. “Some of it, anyway.”
Shit. He was complaining abouthispain? Telling her his story was too terrible to tell when she’d been trapped in her own body for years, had lost her sight when they’d forbidden her from blinking, and couldn’t even remember her last name?
“I’m sorry, Sameen. That was insensitive as fuck of me.”
“No.” His mate reached over and stroked her hand down his chest to his stomach. “Pain isn’t something you can compare.”
“The hell it isn’t. You were their prisoner for more than twelve years.”
“And I’m not pregnant and about to give birth. You think what I went through is worse than what Mara’s dealing with? I felt her, Peter. Her and the baby. She’s so scared. She’s convinced she’s going to die and she’s completely alone.”
A tear fell, landing on Peter’s shoulder, and Sameen choked back a sob.
“That’s what they do. They kill elementals to take their power. They keep their prisoners alone. Confined. Controlled. Not just their bodies, but their minds too.”
“Their minds?”
“If Celia wanted, she could make Mara believe Cade was her enemy. Eli’s father? I knew him. Or...I knew of him. Even though I couldn’t speak or see, I could hear. One time, he begged them to kill him. A few words from Celia and he told her he wanted to live. To serve her until his last breath.”
“Fuck. Except...he fought her. Farren destroyed his sigil, and he’s free now.”
“Destroyed it?” Sameen sat up, her hand pressing to her stomach. “How? Can she do the same thing for me? Once we know we don’t need it to find Mara anymore?”
The hair on the back of Peter’s neck stood on end, and he shook his head. “No. Absolutely not. Farren took a chunk out of his side, and since it all happened on the full moon, he turned. His wolf ran away when we destroyed the compound, and we haven’t seen him since.”
The shock and horror on Sameen’s face made Peter’s heart skip a beat. If he could, he’d move heaven and earth to take away her pain. Her scars. But nothing could erase the past twelve years. Or for him, the past twelve months.
“They’ll never stop hunting me,” she said quietly when Peter urged her back down next to him. “They know I’m alive, Peter. In the circle? When Eli removed the protection spell? I felt them. Celia’s magic...it’s stronger than all of the others, and she called to me. I resisted, but I don’t know that I’m strong enough to do it again.”
A low growl rumbled in Peter’s chest, and he pulled her closer, caging her in his arms and pressing his lips to hers. He poured everything he was into that kiss, and when Sameen yielded to the slightest flick of his tongue and opened to him, the growl turned deeper, almost desperate.
He wanted her. Needed her. Sameen rolled on top of him, and her nipples pebbled under the thin t-shirt. Peter slid his hand along her waist to her hip until he found the smooth, supple skin of her thigh. She shivered, but this time, it wasn’t from the cold. He scented her arousal, her need, but through their tenuous bond came a burst of fear. She wasn’t ready for this yet. Not after everything she’d been through.
