He was feeling my fear.
My need to escape.
The pain.
My heart pounded in my chest.The big muscles in my legs tensed, ready for what I always did.
He growled, pressing closer. His claws pressed down on my feet as if to dare me to try it. To do anything that would take his mate away from him. The person he waited a hundred years for.
Someone who could love him.
That thought hit me sideways and gave me the perspective I was lacking. What had I thought moments before? Even like this, I related to him more than anyone else in this swamp.
Because at the end of the day, that was what I wanted too.
I wasn’t scared. He was the scared one.
Fear came so naturally to me, I couldn’t pry his thoughts away from my own emotions. I could swear it was mine, because we were more alike than either of us cared to admit.
We were the same. That was why I belonged with him.
Because I could understand him.
I’d thought it earlier. That us being reactive to each other would corrode us into our most toxic and destructive versions of ourselves.
But there was another option.
We could change.
My heart pounded against my chest. That was always easier said than done. Wasn’t it?
Right now, it had to be me who left those old practices behind.
If I was him, I’d be snarling like a rabid animal too. If someone stuffed me in that old closet, I’d be swiping and kicking at him.
What would I want from him at this moment? I’d want him to hold me through it. To see my pain instead of reacting to it.
He needed me to be stronger than I’d ever been before. I had to believe in him. That he was bound to protect me, because I was as essential to him as he was to me.
Something thick got stuck in my throat, and I struggled to swallow.
I can’t do it.
Yes. You can.
Tears streamed down my cheeks, and my lips quivered. I dropped to my knees, putting my face inches in front of his snout. He could end me before I could react if he wanted to.
But he won’t.
I didn’t know that. Every muscle twitched, ready to respond to any attack that came my way. My knees sank into the mud.
It wouldn’t be hard to get my feet under me and go west, where the rest of the men disappeared. I didn’t need to run faster than Rot. I only needed to be fast enough that his focus would shift to them. That would buy me time.
No.
I’m scared, and I’m not running. Not this time.
I was more exposed than when I’d been naked before him.
