“How did you get away?”
“I shifted into my fox and ran all the way to the Arctic Wolf Village where my mom was born. My grandparents had already passed. I never knew them, but I had met my mom’s best friend a few times. I told Alice everything. The next morning, I was numb, and I took the Alpha and a few of the warrior wolves to where it happened.” I closed my eyes and pictured what we’d found. “The snow was soaked red... but their bodies were gone. They’d taken them for Kalista knows what. I never understood why back then. Now I know it’s simply because they are evil.”
The room went quiet. All I could hear was our breaths as we stayed wrapped up in each other’s arms. It took me years to open up about this to Thorn, but I told Kian everything so quickly. I trusted him.
“My mom was killed by a human she’d tried to save,” he said, breaking the silence.
I sniffed, wiping my tears as I glanced up at him. “Why was she trying to save a human?”
“My dad told me that they were on a walk. They passed by the werewolf territory, and found a human covered in blood. Mom went over there to see if she could save him. She valued all life. It’s where I get it from, but the blood wasn’t his. It was from a werewolf he'd killed. Dad never told me how the human ended her life, just that it happened and he’d killed the human brutally. He brought her home, and I think a piece of him died with her that day.”
“That’s terrible,” I breathed. “Did you get to bury her?”
His face scrunched up in disgust and his lip curled back. “The village banded together to reanimate her. Her corpse is still moving, but she doesn’t do anything or say anything. That’s good enough for everyone but me.”
I gasped. “Kian, that’s—”
“Disgusting? I know. Necromancers are sick. Our minds are warped. I’m tainted with a darkness that I’ll never shake.”
“Incredibly painful,” I finished in a clipped tone. “It’s heartbreaking that you had to deal with something so painful. I wish there was something I could do to ease that pain, but your mind isn’t warped. You’re so kind and comforting. I feel so comfortable when I’m around you. Not disgusted or afraid, but like I’m supposed to be by your side.”
His brows furrowed as he looked at me, and he shook his head like he couldn’t figure out why I was telling him that. Like he expected me to run from him or look down on him.
I leaned my head back against his chest and wrapped my arms around his torso. “Kian, you might be a necromancer, but you’re not cursed.”
His hold on me tightened as he leaned his chin on the top of my head and took a deep breath.
There was a comforting bond in place between us. In fact, there was a bond forming between me and quite a few people since coming here—and this was only my first full day here.
Damien, Alister, Lachlan, and Kian understood different parts of me, and I understood them. Which was insane because I barely knew them. I’d known Thorn for years and I felt just as comfortable with them as I did with him.
The Fates may have hurt me with Grayson, but if they would make any of them one of my mates, I’d forgive them for their mistake. I never wanted to let myself hope that Thorn would be my mate because I’d known him for so long and it still hadn’t happened. But I knew Grayson just as long and the bond snapped into place when I least expected it to.
Maybe I could let myself hope for this.
“Getting comfortable, are we?” Damien’s voice startled us, and Kian all but tossed me out of his lap in fear for his life.
“Uh, no! I mean, yes. We were, but not because you know, the floor, and—” Kian stuttered, and I huffed out a giggle as he scrambled up and helped me to my feet as well.
“Where have you been?” I turned to Damien, who had a blissful grin on his face and blood staining his fingers. “Kian said you were upset.”
“Little bird,” he sang, prowling closer until he towered over Kian and me both. Kian took the hint and bolted out of the room, which made Damien’s grin wider. “Mmmm, I’m ready to have you all to myself.”
“All to your—”
His shadows wrapped around my back and pushed me closer until our chests were touching. “All mine,” he murmured, reaching up and brushing my cheek with his bloodied fingers.
I caught Grayson’s scent on him. “What did you do to him?”
His smile turned sinister as he tilted his head and grabbed my hand, pulling it to his mouth as he pressed a kiss to my finger. “He won’t be messing with you anymore.”
“Damien,” I warned, and my voice started shaking. “What did you do? He’s the future Alpha of that village. A village where Alice lives. He could so easily take any anger he has for me out on her.”
“He won’t tell anyone what I did,” he promised, his tongue darting out and licking my finger. “He’d be too fucking humiliated.”
“What did you do?” I asked, and pain rippled through the finger he held, making me wince. But the pain dissipated as soon as it’d come.
His face fell as he glanced at my finger, and his face leeched of color. “Did you just feel pain in this finger?”
