Total pages in book: 247
Estimated words: 242728 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1214(@200wpm)___ 971(@250wpm)___ 809(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 242728 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1214(@200wpm)___ 971(@250wpm)___ 809(@300wpm)
I studied her.
Outwardly, she held no marks or signs of the pain I’d given her thanks to the link she now shared with Aktor, but she moved stiffly, gingerly.
“Are you hurt?” I asked through clenched teeth, bracing arms that wanted to embrace her and locking legs that wanted to run to her.
Her fingers went to her throat before she shook her head. “Olish gave me a tonic. It’s taken away most of the aches.” Her amber eyes met mine. “I’m okay, Darro. Truly.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“You don’t have to keep saying that. It wasn’t your fault.”
I scoffed as my heart twisted in my chest. “It was entirely my fault. Not just for hurting Aktor when Solin told me what would happen if I did, but for all of it. The fact that the air hid me and stopped me from snatching you away before the fire could bind you. The fact that I didn’t try harder to make you choose me instead of them when it was just us with the wolves.”
Her shoulders swooped back. “It’s not too late. I know I’ve been slow to understand our connection and possibly naïve about what my staying with the Nhil would entail, but...I’m not his, Darro. I will never be.” She stepped deeper into the river, her hands straying to the braided cord around her waist that kept her deerskin wrapped.
Every part of me froze. “Wh-what are you doing?”
Her fingers fumbled at the cord, undoing it and throwing it toward the shore. “I haven’t bathed today.”
“You shouldn’t. Not while I’m—”
“With me?” Slowly, ever so slowly—torturously slowly—she pulled the deerskin open, granting glimpses of her hip and thigh where her sunburst mark had scabbed over where I’d cut her with the wolf fang.
My tongue tingled with the memory of her taste. Of the sugary nectar of her blood and the bone-quaking power that flowed in her veins.
“Runa...don’t.”
Her eyes hooded as she slipped the wrap away from her stunning body. With a quick throw, she whipped it toward the shore. Zetas leapt to her feet to investigate the deerskin, checking to see if it was something tasty to snack on.
Syn hadn’t followed us, and Natim had been content with the girls who’d taken charge of his care. I missed the fawn, but I was grateful the lynx hadn’t come to snarl at me, because she would. I had no doubt. She would sense my fraying self-control and scent fresh lust thickening between my legs.
I couldn’t take my eyes off Runa. Off the swell of her breasts, the reddened fire mark above her heart, the ridges of muscle down her belly, and the dark curls between her legs. Her long white hair crowned her gold-earthen skin, and her amber gaze seared into me with challenge.
She’d never been so forward.
Neither of us had.
It made me suffocate beneath what could have been.
Choke on desperation of what was so totally forbidden.
I swallowed a groan as my body hardened into pain.
Zetas sniffed the air, her eyes locking onto me.
I didn’t want to have to muzzle and leash her like I did last night when I’d kissed Runa, but I would. Not that I’d give the wolf any reason to try to stop me.
She wasn’t mine to touch anymore.
I couldn’t run away with her.
Couldn’t break the blood bind.
My hands balled, and a flush of black fury worked through me. My head ached warningly, and I gritted my teeth.
“Come swim with me, Darro.” Her voice was breathy with invitation and soft with longing. “Please.”
“We need to talk.” I stood trembling in the shallows.
“We can talk and swim.”
“I don’t want to do either of those things.” I raked a hand over my face, rubbing my jaw with shaky fingers. “If I step into that river with you, Runa, words will flee, and I won’t be able to stop myself from taking what I truly want.”
She sucked in a breath, her eyes ringing with gold. “I’ll never get used to you speaking so honestly.”
I choked on a sad laugh. “I’m not being truthful at all.”
“You aren’t?”
“No.” I lowered my jaw, watching her beneath hooded eyes. “I’m not.”
“Then tell me.” She drifted deeper into the river, water lapping between her legs and over her belly. Her nipples pebbled into tight rosebuds, and her skin flushed with prickles.
I groaned. “Drop below the surface. Hide what I’m not allowed to see.”
She glanced down at her chest before her heated eyes met mine again. “You’ve carried me while I wore nothing. You’ve run through a forest with me looking for a fawn while I wore nothing. While you wore nothing. We’ve slept side by side. I’ve touched you as you released—”
“And each time I wanted you, but now...”
“Now?” Her voice was barely a whisper.
“Now it’s fucking unbearable.”
Her breath caught. “I’m yours, Darro. Not his. Always yours.” Tears glistened on her lower lashes.