“I’m not sure,” he admitted as he ran a hand along Asher’s muzzle.
I raised my brows. “I need you to be sure, or it stays in.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Dommik stepped toward me. I stepped back. He scoffed, rolling out his shoulders. “It’ll fester if you leave it in.”
Asher let out an irritated huff. Neither of my male companions possessed a wealth of patience for my hesitation.
“Reyva, you need to let me help you,” he gritted. Storm-filled eyes leveled me with urgency.
“How do I know I can trust you?” My voice cracked as I thought about the bodies littering the woods around us and how unaffected he was being surrounded by fresh death.
Dark locks fell as he dropped his head. “You don’t.” Dommik sighed and lifted his gaze to meet mine. “But I don’t think you have much of a choice, do you, lovely?”
Asher chuffed, raising and lowering his head in agreement.
He was right. I was met, yet again, with the thinly-veiled illusion of choice. I bit the inside of my cheek in one last short-lived moment of reluctance.
“Be quick about it then.” I shivered. He nodded and set to work retrieving gauze from one of the saddlebags Asher carried.
“You’ll want to bite this,” he said, holding out a strap of leather. I opened my mouth and let him place it between my teeth. “Good girl,” he purred and I scowled in a way my mother would have disapproved of.
Something about his praise ignited an ember in me. Desire. Rage. Maybe both. I continued following his instructions and braced myself against a tree.
“Three…two…”
“FUCK!” My profanity garbled against the leather with the sudden release of wood from my flesh.
“Hold still.” Dommik’s hands moved with unnatural speed as he wrapped the gauze around my arm. Splotches of red seeped through the fabric. I furrowed my brow. Beads of sweat lined his forehead and he strained more with each breath, but he was holding himself together, at least, for the moment.
“Thank you,” I murmured, inspecting his work.
“You’re very welcome,” Dommik strained. He’d quickly wrapped myarm, but was now taking his time pulling the hood of my cloak over my head.
Crickets resumed their nocturnal songs as Dommik towered over me, fingers lingering on the hood lining. His usual, mischievous stare faded into one of reticence, as if a question cloyed just behind his teeth, begging permission to be known.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
Dommik shook his head. “Nothing. I have explicit orders to deliver you safely…and alive. And you’re still alive. So, nothing is wrong.”
I eyed him as he led Asher to me. Getting on the back of that stallion meant I would put my flesh within biting range. Dommik might have been injured, but that didn’t make him less deadly. However, I had little choice but to trust that his explicit orders meant more than my blood.
“I would love nothing more than to remain aliveandunbitten,” I said as I lifted a foot into the stirrup. Dommik aided me into the saddle on his battle-worn stallion before positioning himself behind me.
“May I?” Dommik grumbled.
I looked down at his arm hovering in front of my middle. I wasn’t sure which surprised me more. The fact that he’d asked permission, or that I gave it to him.
His embrace pulled my back flush with his broad chest and his leathered thighs framed mine. I was not some naïve, inexperienced maid, but feeling the strength and security from his muscled body sent my heart into an erratic flutter. I held the horn of the saddle as well as my breath, steadying my thoughts.
Dommik chuckled to himself—about what, I didn’t know—before he clicked his tongue and kicked at the beast's sides. “Home, Asher.”
Chapter 7
The Forest and The Flame
When Dommik instructed his stallion to bring ushome, I’d assumed the Hive was our destination. Not some decrepit manor.
The prelude of daylight seeped through the treeline as Asher ambled toward the deserted estate. From the look of it, this was once a grand home. The roofline sat two stories high on a threatening, deteriorated slope. The structure’s walls were teeming with verdant vines, invading the shattered windows to the interior.
