“I’m going to snore louder just to annoy you.” She took off her shoes and started to climb into bed fully clothed.
“I wouldn’t put it past you. Are you really sleeping in all your clothes? At least take your pants off.”
“Wow. Is that what you say to all the women who climb into bed with you?” She settled into her side of the bed, pants still on. “Such a charmer.”
“Rynn, dear, would you like me to use my charm on you?” I gave her a sly smile.
“No, I’m tired and full from dinner. A laughing fit would upset my stomach.”
I grabbed my pillow and smacked her with it.
Rynn cackled and snatched it from me. “Mine now. Night, Prince Charming.”
“Night, Princess.” I fluffed up my remaining pillow and closed my eyes. We’d have several days of travel to return home. I could get more answers out of her then, away from Sorin.
I was still smiling when I fell asleep.
Pain raced up my side and I stumbled. The young boy in my arms let out a startled cry, and I clutched him tighter to me. “Please be quiet,” I begged.
Silent, warm tears fell against me, only to be washed away by the pouring rain.
He couldn’t be past five years old, and he’d just seen his entire family get slaughtered, so I couldn’t exactly hold his fragile mental state against him.
But the monsters who had butchered his parents and siblings, they were closing in. If I shifted, I could outrun them, but I couldn’t carry the boy in my feline form, and even if he shifted, he wouldn’t be able to keep up with me.
I bit my tongue as I tried to run faster. Blood poured down my right ribs over my hip. I’d panicked when I’d come across the boy’s burning house, and in the chaos, I’d just grabbed him and ran. Straight over a freaking cliff.
Luckily, the drop had only been thirty feet and I’d managed to turn midair to take the brunt of the fall, but something had pierced my side. Between that and several bone fractures, my body was struggling to heal, and I wasn’t giving it much of a chance with the five-mile dead sprint I’d been doing while carrying the boy.
Leaving him wasn’t an option. Everyone he’d known was dead because of me, and the monsters chasing us would absolutely kill him.
My family did not leave witnesses.
Lightning cracked overhead, followed by the roar of thunder. The late summer storm was both helping and hindering us. My family were all ailurans like me, and we couldn’t track scents as well as lycans, as we largely relied on what was in the air. The rain washed away our scents, but it also turned the ground into a squishy mess that held on to our footprints.
I’d already fallen several times when the earth seemed to grip at my feet and pull me down. This was my fault. I should have stood up to my family more or warned the boy’s family.
They were dead because I was a coward.
“We’re going to get out of this, Reed,” I promised in a raspy voice as I ducked under a low-hanging branch, choking back the scream that wanted to escape as the movement aggravated the wound on my side. “Only a little farther. Then we’ll reach my friend Cade and his family. They’ll help us.”
The young boy flinched as another bolt of lightning filled the night sky. To my left, I caught the luminescent eyes of a Velesian for half a second.
My family has found us. We won’t make it.
Those were the last thoughts I had before a dark blur darted forward and slammed into my side. Claws sank into my flesh, and I screamed even as I rolled, trying to protect Reed for at least a few more seconds. Bone crunched as ailuran jaws closed over my shoulder and yanked me back.
Something else grabbed me and pulled me away from Reed. I needed to fight back. I needed to?—
“Bastian! Stop!”
Reality slowly bled back in. The rain-soaked forest faded, replaced by a furnished bedroom, lit with the pale blue of Fae lanterns. My heart was still racing, my thoughts panicked and jumbled while I tried to remove myself from that dream. That fucking memory.
It took me a moment to realize I wasn’t lying on my back in the soft bed anymore. I was fucking straddling Rynn. One of my hands had both of hers pinned over her head and the other was wrapped around her throat. Blood soaked her pillow where my claws had dug in.
“Fuck.” The word came out mangled, and I scrambled off her until I was kneeling at the end of the bed. My hands immediately went to my face, and the blood in my veins went cold at what I felt.
All Velesians could partially shift while in their human form. Usually small changes like turning our nails into claws or sprouting fangs. It was rare for us to do more than that because it didn’t come naturally. If we needed to shift into our beast forms, we would just do it all the way. I knew if I looked in a mirror, my face would be a thing of nightmares.
