My heart slams against my ribs. “Nash?”
He swallows hard, still refusing to look at me. “Daphne. Walk away.”
I don’t. I step closer. “No. Explain what you can.”
His fists clench, and when he finally meets my gaze, his eyes are different. Darker. Wild. Something animalistic lurks behind them. “You want to know what I am?”
The weight of his words makes the world tilt. My pulse is a frantic drumbeat in my ears. He exhales sharply before he opens his mouth wider, displaying a pair of razor-sharp fangs.
I suck in a shocked breath and swallow. He steps back from me, but I catch his wrist and follow him as my mind struggles to make sense of what I’m seeing.
“I didn’t want you to find out like this,” he murmurs.
I shake my head. “I’m not afraid of you.”
“You should be,” he utters hoarsely.
“Why, Nash?” My fingers reach out to skim his cheekbones. They are more pronounced. It’s subtle, but I’ve mapped each of the Stirlings in great detail. He shivers under my caress.
“I am cursed, Daphne. I am not only your protector—I am your predator. And if I lose control, I don’t know if I’ll be able to stop.”
A chill slithers down my spine. The night suddenly feels much, much darker. But I have a reprieve from the heavy weight of grief, and it’s addictive.
“Perhaps I want to be caught,” I tell him.
“Don’t say things you don’t mean.”
“I never do.”
My dark knight, always in control, always considered and logical… now it all makes sense. He’s keeping this side of himlocked down. I rise to my tiptoes and brush my lips against his. “Love isn’t about control, Nash. It’s not about hiding the parts of ourselves we think the other doesn’t want to see. It’s acceptance of the good, the bad, and the beautifully dark.”
“Acceptance doesn’t make me safer, and my dark outweighs everything else,” he mutters as he tucks a lock of hair behind my ear. At least he’s stopped trying to run from me now.
“Do you want to hurt me?” I check as I feather kisses over his jaw.
“Never.”
“Then nothing else matters.”
He runs his nose along my jaw and breathes me in. “Love?” he questions as I tilt my head back and offer him my throat in surrender. My pulse thrums under the delicate flesh.
“Yes.”
“And what would you do for love, Daphne?” he growls.
I lean back to stare into his eyes, tight with uncertainty. Can’t he see that he accepted all that I am without limits, and I can return that for him? For them all?
“Nothing,” I whisper as my fingers thread through his hair. I yank him closer until our foreheads are touching. “It has already claimed me. I don’t do it for love, because my love for you is all-encompassing. It is not a separate thing; we have cracked ourselves open and restitched ourselves back together, creating an unbreakable bond. So the question isn’t what I would do for love, but what wouldn’t I do for you?”
“And the answer?”
“The same. Nothing.”
Nash kisses the hot tears spilling onto my cheeks with an aching tenderness that simultaneously breaks my heart and mends my soul. His lips caress mine, this time in a soft whisper, a promise to always be here for me no matter what life throws at us.
A shrill sound splits the air, tearing us apart. Nash’s eyes flash gold before settling back to their familiar green. The magic surrounding us presses closer with a familiar pressure.
“She’s here,” I say as I break apart from Nash and start running toward camp, where louder shouts disturb the wildlife.
