“I’m fine.” He tries to pull his shirt back down, but it tears in half.
Rolling my eyes, I draw in a deep breath and control my urge to complain. That isn’t what he needs after he saved us and definitely not after what he’s been through.
I find a pair of scissors in his medical kit and cut the rest of the shirt free from him then toss it aside. Azrim is covered in scars like his brother. I clean the wounds as best I can and pack them with paste.
Every touch makes his body quiver, but I can’t tell if it’s from pain or something more. I need to set my palm on him to know for sure, but I’m not sure I’m ready for that kind of contact.He might take it the wrong way.
“Tessi…” he rasps. “Why are you helping me?”
I press gauze over his deepest slices and begin taping it into place. “I am just one of those people who sees someone in pain and compulsively tries to help. I have always had a strong sense of empathy. But as it turns out, that’s what my Isonian skill is. I reveal truth. I see what most try to hide. That’s usually pain.
“I can transfer it too, like emotional telepathy, I guess. I think it’s why the Myndrous are after me. They think I have some gift that can help them win the war. It’s why Zorin and I can’t mate and why, I think, your mission is so important to him. Stop the Nebs and free us from Viriden’s abstinence order. It has something to do with Nebs hurting me worse if I were to get pregnant.” I lean back, wondering if I’ve been too open with him.
Azrim twists his neck and looks up at me as I finish caring for his injuries. When I’m done, he sits back, and I get my first full view of his sculpted, tattoed chest. On one side is a scraping paw with a cosmic background, like the Lunas’ mark but celestial, one I wager is the mark of Aegeris. On his other pec is the MTF badge with a Slayer emblem. But as far as I know, Zorin doesn’t have the same markings.
He smirks just a little, exposing his canines. “Zorin doesn’t like needles.”
“Ah. Well, he wants for us to be together…as a family.” I sit back.
“He’s told me many times.”
I pack up the medical kit. “I’m trying. But I need your help. I don’t really know what I’m doing out here.”
“Radar is skilled. You are doing fine.” Azrim looks down at his son still sleeping in the furs. “Take good care of him.”
I can already see it in his eyes, the desolation he feels and the forming plan to leave. “Azrim.”
“I will get you back with Zorin. That is the safest place for you both.”
I catch his wrist when he moves to get up.
He looks back at me. “I’m just going to scout before we leave. We need to find Zorin. I think I know where he’s gone.”
“Okay. I’ll get Rhysan bundled up and ready to move. Just promise me you won’t leave us.”
Azrim’s face sags.
“It means a lot to Zorin to have you back in his life. And that is important to me. Not to mention, your son needs you more than us.”
Azrim turns around and stalks into me, making me back pedal into the wall. He bars me in with his arms and snarls as he scours my face. His eyes shift and his teeth elongate. “Let’sget one thing straight. I amnota good influence inyourlife orRhysan’s. You are saferwithoutme. Do. Not. Push it.”
What Azrim doesn’t realize is that when he shoved me back against the wall, I instinctively braced myself against his body. Now, I can feel him: his rage, his fear, the little quiver in his heavy heartbeat as he studies me. He’s so dug in with his self-loathing that he’s hiding from his needs.Or maybe he’s using his self-loathing on purpose to protect himself?
His pulse quickens. He glares down at me with as much hatred as he can summon, yet he ever so slowly closes the gap between us.
Azrim inhales me as muscles twitch all over his body like he’s fighting his Shifter. His claws bite into the cave wall. Azrim sweeps his nose over mine as he takes his time drawing in my scent. “You were just in heat.”
My pussy tenses as his breath moves to my neck.
“I told you,” I say as calmly as I can.
Azrim’s body ripples with dark waves like Zorin’s did when he started losing control. But now I canfeelthe tides of lust storming through Azrim. And because I sense them in him, it makes it harder to tamp down my own.
“How did he control himself?” Azrim breathes in my exhale. His bottom lip brushes mine. “How could he… resist you?”
I swallow my fear of what mating with a Shifter like Azrim would be like. His desire is so dark and powerful, soferalthat it makes me jerk my hands back. Azrim doesn’t realize I know just how badly he wants me.
“Rorsar dosed him with something that controlled his Shifter.”
