“Then we wait until the pass clears.”
He said it like it was simple. Like being trapped together in this small cabin, just the two of them, was nothing more than an inconvenience to be endured.
Maybe for him it was.
But as she finished her meal and let the warmth of the fire and her full stomach pull her back towards sleep, she couldn’t help thinking that something had changed. She’d been torn away from the life she’d known, the role she’d been born to play. For the first time in her twenty-one years, no one was watching her.No one was protecting her. No one was telling her what to do or who to be.
She was alone with a stranger in the mountains, with no idea what came next.
I should be afraid,she thought one final time as her eyes drifted closed.
But all she felt was free.
CHAPTER 4
Ember fell asleep between one breath and the next. Rykan watched as her body slumped down in the chair and her breathing evened out into the deep rhythm of true rest.
I can’t leave her there.
He gently lifted her into his arms and she immediately curled into him, fitting against his chest as if she belonged there. His arms tightened around her reflexively. Even half-frozen and barely breathing she’d felt right in his arms. Now that she was warm and soft, pliant with sleep, the feeling threatened to overwhelm him. His beast purred in satisfaction, but he shook his head.
She’s too close.
He carried her to the sleeping platform, gently laying her down, her skin pale and tempting against the dark furs. He carefully pulled the shirt she was wearing down over her thighs but it made no difference. The image of her naked body was permanently etched in his brain. Small perfect breasts toppedwith rosy little nipples that made his mouth water. Silky blonde hair only partially concealing the delicate pink folds between her legs. He’d tried to treat her like an injured animal, focusing only on warming her and keeping her alive, but he couldn’t deny the way her scent had left him hard and aching.
Her scent…
His beast stirred again, restless and demanding.
Ours.
His beast wouldn’t be silent. It hadn’t been silent since the moment he’d caught her scent.
Impossible.
He pulled the heavy furs over her, his knuckles brushing against her cheek as he did so. Softer than anything he’d ever touched. He pulled away before his beast could tempt him further, but watching her sleep in his bed—hisbed, surrounded byhisscent, wrapped inhisfurs—only made his beast’s demands more relentless.
He clenched his fists and walked away. The cabin suddenly felt too small, too warm, too filled with her. He needed to think. Needed to breathe air that didn’t carry her fragrance. He unlatched the shutters and opened the window, the blast of cold air like a slap to the face. The world beyond the cabin was a study in black and white—a landscape of white snow broken by dark tree trunks and the dark grey of the rocky peaks. The sun was setting and the sky was a heavy leaden blanket, promising more snow to come.
If more snow fell, the pass could be blocked for a long, long time. Days. Maybe weeks. He was trapped with her and her impossiblytempting scent. Trapped in this cabin with a human female who looked at him without fear.
Foolish,he thought.She should be afraid.
He was Vultor. His kind had clashed with human colonists for decades, with too much blood spilled on both sides. Those disputes had died down but even now, most humans crossed the street to avoid a Vultor walking the same path. They flinched at the sight of golden eyes and tensed at the sound of a growl.
Ember had done neither. And when he’d asked if she was afraid, she’d met his eyes and saidnolike it was the simplest truth in the world.
He drew in a deep breath of the frigid air, trying to clear her scent from his lungs. It didn’t work. Her fragrance lingered at the back of his throat, sweet and persistent, a promise he had no business wanting. He hadn’t been lying when he said he’d come to these mountains to be alone.
Six years,he thought.Six years I’ve lived here alone. Six years of peace. Six years of silence.
Six years of running from his pack.
The memory was a harsh reminder that appearances were deceptive. The most innocent exterior could hide a manipulative heart. He’d learned that lesson in blood and betrayal, in the moment when the female he’d thought was his had chosen his weaker half-brother instead. Lysara had looked innocent too. Soft-voiced and gentle-eyed, with a smile that had made his beast purr happily.
But that smile had hidden ambition sharper than any claw.
His jaw tightened. He shouldn’t be thinking about Lysara. He shouldn’t be comparing this human stranger to the female who’d helped destroy his place in the pack. They were nothing alike—different species, different places, different circumstances entirely. But for the first time since he’d left his pack, he was interested, more than interested, in a female.
