Page 24 of Vow to Claim You

Panic claws through my chest, but he doesn’t move. Doesn’t pull away. If anything, he presses down harder, covering every inch of me with his body as if the bullet lodged somewhere inside him is irrelevant compared to the ones still coming.

“Tassilo!” Aric roars as another bullet slams into the dirt behind us.

The convoy erupts—doors slamming open, men shouting, boots hitting gravel.

Tassilo shows up like a demon summoned from hell, gun raised, eyes scanning every tree. His gaze snaps to Aric, then to me beneath him, and his expression doesn’t change. Not even a flicker. Even in chaos, he looks like a man who hates the entire world and has long since stopped pretending otherwise.

“Sector west!” Aric growls, the sound rough with pain. “Shooter’s moving.”

Tassilo nods and signals the others. Men scatter as though it’s choreography, and I’m the only one who doesn’t know the steps.

Then something warm drips onto my collarbone.

Blood. Not mine.

“Aric,” I breathe, panic tightening my throat like a fist. “You’re bleeding⁠—”

“I know.”

“You’re shot⁠—”

“I know, Ayanna.”

His voice is steady, but I feel his muscles trembling against me, not from cold or fear. From the effort of holding himself together while his body tries to fall apart. And the guilt hits me like a wave I didn’t see coming, dragging me under before I can catch my breath.

This is my fault.

I didn’t listen. I didn’t stay in the car. And now his blood is seeping into my dress, because he chose my life over his, and all he’d asked me to do was stay in the damn car.

He tries to lift himself off me but winces—jaw clenched, teeth bared, a sound caught somewhere between a grunt and a snarl. The movement drags another dark smear across the velvet of my dress, and fresh warmth blooms against my skin.

“Aric, stop—let me help⁠—”

“Your job,” he grits out, “is to not get killed tonight.”

“And yours is to bleed out protecting me?”

His eyes flash to mine—pale blue burning through the darkness. “If that’s what it takes.”

The words steal the breath from my lungs. I don’t know what to do with them. Don’t know where to put the way they make my chest ache, the way they terrify me more than the bullets still ricocheting through the trees.

He finally manages to push himself up, bracing one arm against the frozen ground, the other pressed to his side.

He’s pale. Too pale.

Tassilo climbs halfway down the embankment and gestures. “Boss, we need to move.”

Aric nods, swallowing pain like it’s nothing. Then he turns those storm-dark eyes on me. “You’re going with Tassilo.”

“What?” My voice pitches higher than I’d like. “No. I’m not leaving you here⁠—”

“Ayanna.” My name lands like an order. “Go with him. For fuck’s sake, listen to me. For once.”

Tassilo extends a gloved hand to me.

I hesitate, and Aric sees it. His jaw ticks, but whether from pain or frustration, I can’t tell.

“Please.” The word is barely more than a rasp, and something inside me gives way because Aric Vold doesn’t say please. Not to anyone. Not for anything.