“Lady Asha…” Mother Solas is on her feet, her face pale. “What can we do?”
“Look after Galeia until Erik can return for her.” Tears burn behind my eyes. “I won’t leave without him. I will ask him to come with me as far as he safely can. I won’t waste a second of the time I have left with him. But when I’m gone, he will need people around him who can keep him anchored.”
I force myself to my feet, carrying Galeia to Mother Solas’s waiting arms. “I know you don’t have long. Please tell Rachel what has happened. Ask her to find a place for Erik.” I swallow against the constriction in my throat. “Galeia will take up much of his time, but once she’s grown, he will need a purpose.”
That’s all I can manage before I slip from the room.
Chapter 46
When I reach the top of the tower, Erik is still fast asleep, and I don’t want to wake him.
Maybe I should rush away. There are people who need me. But Erik needs me, too. And I need him. The moon is high, and dawn is several hours away. I will stretch out these final moments with all my might.
I press my hand to the wall, closing the doorway once again. This tower answers my needs so I trust that Galeia and the others will be safe within it.
Slipping back to the rug, I nestle against Erik’s side and close my eyes.
He stirs, his upper arm sliding around my waist, pulling me closer, but his breathing remains deep.
I close my eyes and let myself dream about a life here with him. He and Galeia can hunt in the forest. I can use my power to create everything we need. In that dream world, the darkness wouldn’t exist, and nothing could tear us apart?—
“Asha.” Erik’s panicked whisper meets my ears a second before his arms clamp around me.
Only moments ago he was sleeping peacefully, but now he crushes me to his chest, one of his hands tangling in my hair.
His heart is pounding so hard I can feel it.
“Fucking nightmares,” he rasps before his lips press to mine. His other arm has slipped beneath me, and my body weight must be pinning it, but he doesn’t seem to care.
His eyes are wide open, and right now, he is purewolf.
“Don’t go,” he snarls at me, a command that echoes with all the ferocity of the beast he used to be. “You’ve given enough. I’ve given enough.”
The pain in his voice is like a knife in my heart.
I want to tell him that I won’t leave him. That the darkness unleashed by the actions of those who came before me is not for me to banish. But I can’t lie to him…
Tears slip down my cheeks, and I don’t try to stop them.
He watches their downward path, his hands stroking my back, his fingers finding the gap between the bottom of my tunic and my waistband and tugging them apart, caressing the bare skin he exposes.
“Give me permission,” he says, more softly but no less intensely than before, “and I will make you want to stay.”
The pressure of his hands lightens, tantalizing strokes now swirling across my lower back, and I can’t deny the desire heating my body.
“You have my permission,” I whisper.
Slowly, he lifts himself and me into a sitting position, first pulling me up onto his chest, then using his stomach muscles to sit up before guiding my legs around his waist. His hands don’t stop kneading my back, easing the sore muscles across my shoulders, all the while tugging on the material of my tunic.
“This room needs a bath,” he says without taking his eyes off me, brushing his lips to mine.
I lean back toward the edge of the rug, taking my time to reach out with my left hand, my movement causing my back to arch and pushing my core against his hard length. My new position draws a growl to his lips, and I can’t stop my groan as pleasure spikes through me at the contact.
It takes everything in me to focus on my task and not rock against him.
Finding the edge of the rug, I press my palm to the hard floor, a vision of a big, white, claw-foot bath filling my mind. The rock forming the floor in the left-hand corner of the room ripples and extends upward until the bath that I imagined forms, complete with cloths to wash and dry ourselves with.
Erik barely glances at them. One of his hands continues supporting my arching back while his other slips around to my stomach, stroking upward between my breasts, stopping at the base of them, his fingers splayed but not stroking. It’s a promise of pleasure that only feeds the heat growing between my legs.
