Come on, come on…
“Skoll here.”
She sank against a rock in relief.
“Skoll, it’s Scotty. We need your help.” She explained what’d happened, and in a huge stroke of luck, the other team was near where they’d been swept into the caverns. In an even bigger stroke of luck, Jon had a rough map of the area.
Wraith-like luck, indeed.
“Stay where you are,” Jon told her, as if they had much choice.
She glanced over at Blade, who was still searching for his pack, and lowered her voice. “What’s your ETA?”
“A couple of hours, probably,” Jon said, and her mouth went dry. Blade wouldn’t make it another twenty minutes, let alone two hours. “You said you think the caves are where the wendigos are nesting? Dawn is coming. Watch your backs. They’ll be returning soon. Jon out.”
“Out,” she murmured. Shit.
“I’m not going to make it.” Blade’s voice, dark and smooth, caressed her from across the space.
Desperate to end this…whatever it was happening between them, she fumbled for her dagger. “I’ll open a gate. We must be far enough from the veil.” They had to be.
Nervous tremors made the blade unsteady as she sliced into her hand. For the first time ever, she didn’t dread opening a gate. The weird panic that usually gripped her was held at bay by the urgent need to get out of there.
Blood dripped to the ground. Drip, drip, drip. Too slow! Viciously, she slashed at her palm again. And again.
“Scotty!” Blade started toward her. “What are you doing?”
“It’s taking too long.” She slashed again, and the blood poured, way more than she needed. She didn’t care. They had to get out. She had to get away from Blade.
Clenching her fists, she envisioned a gate.
Nothing. The pool of blood just sat there.
Fuck!
“Blade, I’m sorry—” Her words broke off at the sight of him standing a few feet away, his chest heaving, his golden eyes hyperfocused on her.
“Do you know about the Sem bonding ritual?” he asked, his voice husky, the tone vibrating in her core.
“I…kinda.” Mostly, she just knew that two Sems couldn’t bond with one female. Rade had made that very clear all those years ago.
Blade drifted closer, his gaze locked on her bleeding hand. “The male and female exchange blood. Not much, just a taste, really…”
Oh…gods. If it felt anything like what she’d experienced with Mace—
“Blade.” She snapped her fingers, startling them both out of the sexual haze building around them. “Blade! Get your shit together.”
She needed to gethershit tighter too. But thinking was becoming more and more difficult as his need pumped pheromones into the air.
“I’m sorry, Scotty,” he croaked. “I’m…I’m not going to be able to control myself soon. I’m just going to…go.”
“Go? Go where?”
“Somewhere. Anywhere.” His voice was rough, tortured in a way she’d never heard. “I have to get away from you. I can’t…I won’t…hurt you.”
“Oh, Blade,” she whispered. “You could never hurt me.”
“Not…physically…I don’t think.” The anguish in his expression made her heart ache. She’d rarely seen him so vulnerable. So miserable. “We took an oath. I won’t betray you or Mace.” He ducked into the tunnel.
