AllFreeNovel
Share Us
And that—she realized—was what he’d meant when he’d said, “I’ll hurt you.”
Because now things were different. Now her animal loved him. Now her heart felt tethered to him. Now it would be a different kind of hurt when he left.
I’ll hurt you.
Yes. Yes he would, but for tonight…for this moment…for right now, all she wanted to do was pretend that he wouldn’t.
Chapter Fourteen
He shouldn’t be here.
Lucas looked up into the tree and narrowed his eyes at the nest up high in the branches.
It was windy tonight, and the tree swayed slightly, creaking with the movement.
A small twig fell from the nest and as he reached to pick it up, he hated the dark fur that covered his forearm. He hadn’t been able to fight the animal tonight, and he knew why he was here.
Please don’t.
The animal rumbled and the logical side of him withdrew—grew smaller, weaker. God, he was so weak.
Please. He hated the frailness in his pleading voice. No one would hear him but the gorilla.
The twig snapped in his massive hand.
You’ll hurt her.
“No,” the animal said in that gravelly, inhuman voice of his. “You will.”
He choked on his words as the animal strangled him to invisibility and climbed the tree, limb by limb.
He hated the power in every clench of his fist on every branch. Hated the strength he had to pull himself straight up, up, up. He hated his dark heart when he was the animal. Hated the savageness with which he made decisions.
He had ruined his life here years ago, and now he would do it again. Didn’t he see? Didn’t he see! I’m leaving! He choked on the words as the animal stood to his full height on the thick branch the nest rested on. Jenna’s falcon had plucked many of her downy feathers from her breast and lined the giant nest. This was her creation. Her cry for wanting more. Her safe place that no one knew about but him.
As the gorilla’s fists slammed down onto the nest, Lucas tried to disappear inside of his mind—not because he was weak, but because he didn’t want to watch the destruction.
For some God-awful reason, his vision remained clear, and he felt every sting of every branch as he destroyed the nest. The rustle of leaves below brushed against his revved-up instincts, and he looked down to see her. The gorilla roared and threw the remains out of the tree, then raced the downy feathers down the tree trunk and landed hard on the ground.
A woman with familiar bright-green eyes and long black hair that whipped around her face stared at him with such fury in her eyes.
She lifted a rifle and aimed it at his face. Enraged, he charged her. These were his woods. His. He could do whatever he wanted in his woods.
He skidded toward her, fist raised to slap that rifle out of her grip, but movement behind her stopped him inches away from the barrel.
There was a massive iron cage in the woods, and inside, Jenna was on her knees, her hands tied behind her back, her mouth covered in a gag. Tears were streaming down her cheeks, and her eyes pleaded something he didn’t understand.
He looked back at the woman.
Lucia—the wind whispered her name.
Lucia Novak.
The raven-blooded grizzly. Rumor had it that she was starting to get the ‘sight’ like her father, and brother.
Lucas was the Blade of the Mountains, but Lucia went by another name.
The second daughter of Beaston was called the Watcher of the Mountains.
