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She gazed up at me with heavy lids and lips parted. My female was right there with me. I could feel her clenching, fluttering around me. I gripped her hair and pressed my forehead to hers as I fucked her harder against the shower wall. She bit her lip, then cried out, coming around my cock. I covered her mouth with mine, swallowing down her cries, and then pulled my mouth from hers and roared as my orgasm slammed through me.

I stayed inside her, still moving, slowing my pace as I kissed her, drinking her in. Her warmth, her scent—every fucking thing about her.

I felt as if I’d been separated from her for months, not days.

Because I loved her.

I was so deeply in love with my mate that being apart from her had felt as if my heart had been torn from my chest.

I kissed her again and lifted my head as I reluctantly slid from her body.

She ran her hand over my chest, over the wounds still healing. “What happened to you?”

I kissed her pretty mouth. “Demons, they’ve been coming closer to the keep. We don’t know why.”

She gripped my shoulders, her eyes growing round. “I do.”

Iris told me about Penny and Charity and that she’d threatened Iris’s family and our pack. That she was behind the demons coming here, that they were behind everything.

“Charity and the crones are using Penny to get what they want,” Iris said.

“Which is?”

“To be brought back from the dead. Charity just needs one more thing, and they’ll get what they want.”

“What? What does she need?”

Her throat worked. “Me.”

Fear sliced me through the middle. “They want you dead?”

“They need my soul. That’s why the crones called for me to take Charity’s bones to Shadow Falls. And when that failed and you saved me…”

“They came to you in your sleep. That’s why they were leading you into the woods?”

“Yes, to the cottage. It’s in limbo and it’s enchanted. That’s where Charity and the crones are. But Charity can’t reanimate without me there. Death won’t just let her leave. She thinks with our similar powers and Thornheart blood in my veins, she can fool Death into thinking I’m her, so he won’t come after her. Without me, she can’t free herself.”

“Fuck.” I shoved my fingers through my hair.

She grabbed my arm. “She said, if I’m not there by dawn, they’ll send more demons here, Draven. I…I need some time to figure out how to beat her. I can’t ask my family. If I do, all this will have been for nothing. We’ll lose the gifts the mother gave us, and it won’t just be me who suffers. I can’t take on Penny without some kind of plan or a power boost, not with Charity and the crones giving her their power as well. I just…I need time to figure this all out.”

“I’ll kill her,” I snarled.

“She’ll sense you coming and she’ll send a forest full of demons into the keep.” She gripped me tighter and shook her head. “And no matter what Penny said, Charity and the crones aren’t going to just sit around and wait for me to come to them, I’m too important to their plan. They’ll come for me sooner.” She hugged herself. “The pack is in danger again because of me. I brought this here.”

“No, that was Charity. Her and Penny did this, not you. I promise you, the pack is safe. Demons aren’t getting in here, petal. I won’t let them.” I cupped her face. “I’ve got you. Just tell me what you need from me?”

“Don’t let me fall asleep.”

CHAPTER 38

Draven

Iris looked exhausted.

I had the windows open, the frigid air filling the room. She’d been scribbling in a notebook, muttering to herself, trying to come up with a spell or incantation to boost her power, some kind of a plan.

Christ, I felt fucking helpless. The first few hours had been fine, but she was starting to tire. We’d walked around the keep. I didn’t want her outside, not with demons every-fucking-where. But the adrenaline she’d been running on was leaving her, and my mate was struggling.