She glares up at me, just as furious. “Let me go, Zane.”
“Not a chance.”
“You don’t get to—”
“You ran,” I cut in, my voice edged with rage and a note of betrayal that surprises even me. “You actually thought you could just disappear and I wouldn’t come after you?”
“I wasn’t disappearing,” she snaps. “I was going back.”
“To Wraith Peak,” I say flatly. “Alone.”
“Yes.”
“That’s insane, Naia,” I bite back, unable to stop the possessiveness from coming out despite how hard I try. “Stupid…and reckless.”
Her gaze on me sharpens. “Don’t talk to me like that.”
“Then don’t act like it.”
She shoves against me, attempting to break free, but I don’t budge. My grip on her stays the same, firm but not punishing.
“I was trying to help,” she mutters, chest still rising and falling hard.
“By walking straight into a situation you can’t even begin to handle?”
“I’m not useless.”
“No, you aren’t, but you aren’t an entire pack, either.”
“It doesn’t matter. They’re still out there,” she fires back. “So long as they’re able to, they’ll keep taking more people. They took me, and I can’t just do nothing.”
“I was there, Naia. I know.”
“Then you should understand why I need to go back.”
“I understand why you think that, but that doesn’t make it right.”
Her dark eyes can’t hide the tangle of anger and desperation in her, needing so badly to prove that she can do it. “I’m not just going to sit around while everything falls apart. I can find them, and I will stop them.”
“And your brother?” I ask, feeling another twist in my gut at the thought of him. “You think you’re just going to walk in and force Hayes to do something?”
Her jaw tightens. “I have to try.”
“No,” I say firmly. “You don’t.”
“Yes, I do.”
“No, you don’t,” I repeat, leaning closer, my voice dropping. “And I’m not letting you do this shit alone.”
She grits her teeth in an attempt to seem stronger. “You don’t get to decide that for me.”
“I do, now that it isn’t just you.”
The words slip out before I can stop them, and the second they do, the bond sparks into something hotter and impossible to ignore. It nearly winds me before it eases through my system, urging me to cut the space. To mark her completely and make sure there’s no questioning who she belongs to.
Her breath catches slightly, and so does mine. We both feel that connection, and the way our wolves are pulled together, dragging us along.
“Damn it, Naia,” I mutter under my breath, exhaling as I move dangerously close, lips so near her neck now. I feel the jump in her pulse, and it only spurs me on. Her scent is so distracting up close, more like it’s intoxicating me. My words brush against her skin. “I’m not letting you go back alone.”
