Must warm. Must keep. Must not lose.
He held her with all the strength left in him and rocked her slightly in the water without even knowing he was doing it. His wolf muzzle pressed into her damp hair, breathing her in over and over as though scent alone could keep her tethered to life.
“Kiera,” he managed once. Or it came out only as a low, ragged whine.
No matter. Only warm mattered now. Only her body slowly, slowly losing that terrible frozen feel in his arms.
Brux sank deeper into the pool with her clutched against him, the steam curling around them, the last scraps of sentient thought slipping through his grasp one by one. He no longer knew how long he sat there.
Only that he could not let go.
Could not stop holding her.
Because if he did–if he loosened his arms even once–if he let the void have him completely before she was safe and warm again…he would lose her forever.
And that one thought remained when all the others had gone.
34
KIERA
Kiera woke floating in warmth and wetness.
For a few confused seconds, she had no idea where she was. She only knew that something solid and hot was pressed against her and that water lapped gently against her skin. Steam drifted over her face and her limbs felt heavy and boneless, as though she had been sleeping for a thousand years.
Then memory came back in a brutal rush.
Higgs…the cart…the freezing warehouse…the dead women hanging on hooks.
And then Brux—Brux bursting in like some furious avenging god and throwing himself at Higgs with red eyes and snapping jaws and blood everywhere.
Kiera’s heart kicked hard in her chest.
Brux–where was he?
She blinked and opened her eyes fully. She was in the bathing pool, and she was being held…held tightly against a furry body, her cheek pressed to a broad chest slick with steam and water. One huge arm was wrapped around her. The other braced them both against the curved stone edge of the pool.
The face above her was in shadow at first.
“Brux?” she asked softly, lifting one hand to touch him, to reassure herself that she was safe and he was here, and everything was all right now.
But her fingers found a wolf’s muzzle, not a human face.
“Oh no,” she breathed.
Just then he shifted a little and moved into the light.
Kiera’s breath caught in her throat–Brux was in his wolf—man state, as she thought of it. Not fully animal and not fully the tall dark male with the blue eyes and human face she had come to know and love, but something in between.
His body was huge and muscular and unmistakably humanoid, but it was covered in dense dark fur, and above it was the head and face of a wolf—powerful jaws, long muzzle, pointed ears, and glowing, golden eyes without a trace of blue in them.
They were pure gold.
The sight sent a spear of panic straight through her.
“Brux, can you hear me? Can you understand me?” she asked.
He only whuffed softly–just like he had when he was a wolf. When he was Buck instead of Brux.
