I smash my fist into a tree trunk. Then again. And again.
“Hey, hey.” Konstam grabs my arm and yanks me backward. “Stop. You idiot, stop.”
“She loves me,” I say.
“Has she ever said so?”
I shake my head.
“There you go,” Darian says. “There’s your answer.”
I shove him away. “She doesn’t have to say it, you moron. She has shown it with actions.”
“Like refusing to run away with you?”
“Next thing my fist hits,” I inform him, “will be your fucking head.”
“Let’s all calm down.” Konstam lifts his hands. “Valen?—”
“You calm down.” I start walking. “I’m going back.”
“And what will you do?” he calls out after me. “Kidnap her?”
“Shut your mouth,” I grouse. “I’d never take her against her will.”
Darian runs to catch up with me. “So you’ll stay there while she’s married to that asshole of a human lord, and spend the next months and years trying to talk her into leaving him?”
I halt and roar my anguish into the night. “Stop talking!”
“You don’t want to hear the truth. It smarts.”
“You don’t understand.” I’m panting. I rub at my chest because it fucking hurts. “She’s in danger. I… I can feel it.”
Again that exchange of looks between them as Konstam reaches us.
“You mean, feel it, like, reallyfeelit?” Darian inquires, a brow raised. “As in mating bondfeelit?”
“In my chest and in my head,” I breathe. “Is there any other way?”
“Well,” Kon says eventually,“fuck.”
“Not only do we save your lily-white ass every time,” Darian grumbles, “now we have to worry about your bondmate?”
“Shut up, Dar,” Konstam says. “You only wish you had such a pretty bondmate yourself, you grumpy wolf. Come on, gentlemen. Valen is right. Let’s head back.”
While in wolf form, we don’t speak, but as we lope through the woods and brushland, we don’t need words. My friends have my back, and that safety net lets me focus on finding her.
She’s afraid, she’s running. My chest feels too tight. My head is pounding. She’s afraid for her life.
We may be too late.
I should never have left her there with that brute who bruised her body and her spirit. But taking her away by force would have lowered me to his level, so the only thing I can do is be close by, in case she needs me.
In case I can save her.
In case she lets me.
We’ve run far, and regret bites me in the ass. I should have followed my gut. Should have stayed. Anger and disappointment pushed me away. I’d thought myself better than this.
