For a long moment, we stand there in the morning light, the fire crackling softly beside us. I can see the war playing out in his expression—duty against desire, protection against honesty.
Then something hardens in his face, some decision made, and he steps back.
“Get dressed,” he says, his voice cold. “I’m taking you home.”
The dismissal hits me like a slap. After everything—the rescue, the intimacy, the earth-shattering kisses—he’s retreating behind his walls again, shutting me out just when I thought I was getting through.
“That’s it?” I ask, hating how small my voice sounds. “That’s your answer?”
“That’s my answer.” He won’t meet my eyes now, already moving toward the door. “Twenty minutes, Jessa. Then we leave.”
He disappears outside, probably to prepare whatever magical transportation he uses, leaving me alone in his sanctuary with my anger and hurt and the lingering taste of him on my lips.
I dress quickly, my hands shaking with emotion. The beautiful lodge that felt like a haven last night now feels like a prison, too intimate, too full of possibilities that will never be explored.
But as I pull on my boots, I catch sight of myself in the mirror by the door. My hair is wild, my lips swollen from his kisses, and my eyes burn with determination instead of defeat.
He thinks he’s protecting me by pushing me away. He thinks he knows what’s best for both of us.
He’s about to learn how wrong he is.
Because I meant what I said—I’m stronger than he thinks. And I’m done letting him make choices for me.
If he won’t trust me with the truth, I’ll find it myself. And when I do, when I understand exactly what’s happening to him and why he’s so afraid, I’ll make him see that some things are worth the risk.
Even if it kills us both.
The mark on my shoulder burns warm beneath my clothes, a reminder of the bond that ties us together whether he likes it or not. He can run from this, from me, but he can’t escape what we are to each other.
And neither can I.
The hunt is on.
CHAPTER 8
AELIN
I dreamof her mouth against mine, her hands in my hair, her body soft and willing beneath me as I claim what the bond insists is already mine.
In the dream, there are no barriers between us—no duty, no fear, no careful control keeping me from taking what I desperately want. She’s naked in my bed, storm-gray eyes dark with desire as she pulls me down to her. Her skin is flushed and warm, marked with the symbols of our bond, and when she whispers my name, it sounds like a benediction.
“Please,” she breathes against my lips, and I can taste her need, her hunger. “I’m yours. I’ve always been yours.”
I wake with a roar that shakes the walls of my chambers, my body half-shifted and burning with need so intense it’s agony. Antlers have sprouted from my skull, and my hands end in claws that have shredded my sheets to ribbons. Frost spreads across the floor from where I kneel, panting like a beast in rut.
The moon calls to me through the windows, full and silver and demanding. It pulls at the wildness in my blood, urges me toshift completely, to run through the forest and hunt and claim and mate. The civilized part of me—the king—fights against it, but the beast is stronger tonight.
Too strong.
I stumble from my bed, barely managing to throw on clothes before the change overwhelms me entirely. My body ripples, bones lengthening and reshaping as I flee through the corridors of my palace. Servants scatter from my path, sensing the dangerous magic that rolls off me in waves.
By the time I reach the forest, I’m no longer humanoid. Four legs carry me through the snow, my magnificent antlers scraping against low branches as I run deeper into the winter realm. This is my true form—the reindeer king in all his ancient glory, blessed and cursed by magic older than memory.
But tonight, it feels like a curse indeed.
I run until my lungs burn, until the desperate ache in my chest eases to something manageable. The moon bathes everything in silver light, and the forest is quiet except for the sound of my hooves on the frozen ground. Here, in the deepest part of my domain, I can be what I truly am without shame or fear.
A monster. A beast. A creature that should never presume to touch something as pure as her.
