Panic flared inside me, the answer on the tip of my tongue. I’d run from him to avoid this exact scenario. Did I really want to do this? I looked up intover’athgreen eyes, filled with a mix of desperation and hope, and the wall I’d built around my heart cracked a little.
“Because the last time I told someone my truth, let them see into myfucking soul…” I sucked in air as memories, way too vivid, slid into my mind.
Blood. Pain. Fear.
I drew in another breath, deeper this time, then let it out slow and steady, attempting to calm my racing heart as I slid my palms along his jaw, tilting his head down to face me better. “They took that knowledge and used it to betray me in the worst way imaginable.”
TALIS
I stared back at Axel,his words taking too long to sink in because I didn’t want to acknowledge the awful realisation that came with them.
Axel was confident, cocky, full of raw mischief and a touch of arrogance I found so appealing. But as the silence stretched between us, I saw a quiet vulnerability in him that made my wolf howl in protest.
Say something.
Don’t let him think you don’t care.
He started to pull away, but I tightened my hold on him and swallowed past the lump in my throat. “Zh’alek?” I growled, more of a statement than a question, because it had to be him.Hadto.
Axel nodded and I screwed my eyes shut, barely hanging on to the roar desperate to claw its way out of my chest.
I felt sick.
“Talis?” The uncertain edge to his voice snapped me out of the rage threatening to take over, and I pulled him close, wrapping my arms around him and holding him tight against me. I’d expected him to protest, to push me away with a stinging remark, and when he stiffened, I braced myself for the hurt I knew would follow.
But with a bone-deep sigh, he melted against me, arms wrapping around my waist and head resting against my shoulder.
Yes.
I tried not to get ahead of myself. He’d just shared something intensely private, something that instinct told me he didn’t share often. He was bound to feel a little off-kilter after that. ButGoddess help me,it was so fucking hard not to growl with satisfaction at suddenly havingeverythingI’d ever wanted.
It might not last though.
That thought alone helped me grab onto some much-needed calm and rein my wolf in from doing something that would no doubt scare Axel out of my embrace.
Maybe he already knows.
He said he could read my mind, after all.
I hadn’t believed him at first, a knee-jerk reaction, but then I’d looked at him. In all his silver-haired, violet-eyed fae glory. Despite how much he’d adapted to our realm, the fact remained that he came from another world. One full of a magic I neither understood nor knew much about. Why did I doubt for a single second that he was telling me the truth?
Axel never lied.
He sighed against me, warm breath tickling the side of my neck.
Axel was about four inches shorter than my six feet four, lean and toned in the way all fae seemed to be, but he fit my body like I knew he would.
Perfectly.
I dipped my head, burying my nose in the crook of his neck, and breathed him in, taking advantage of his sudden willingness to let me do this. Scents of the forest filled my lungs, undercut by the faintest scent of pack.
It made my breath catch.
I’d never noticed it before, wasn’t aware that anyone other than a shifter could carry it, but there it was, nevertheless.
An ache formed in my chest, a deep longing for something I’d wanted ever since he’d first walked through that gateway and into my life.
I might have him in my arms now, but had anything changed? As much as I wanted this moment to never end, to bask in it and pretend that everything was fixed between us…
