Too slow,his thought whimpered into the bond.He’s catching me. The quiet. It’s... catching up.
Kaelen moved first. “Wolf, get up. We’re not stopping here.”
But Flynn’s form began to strobe. One moment, he was a man, his lean, wiry muscles slick with sweat. The next, he was a giant wolf, fur matted with grime, amber eyes wide with panic. The shifts became faster, a flickering montage of man and beast, like a candle flame guttering in a draft.
I c-can’t... hold... the sh-shape!
“Fight it!” Thane commanded, his voice a tectonic rumble that shook the dust from the pillars. “Remember who you are!”
It was the wrong thing to say. Flynn screamed, a sound that was half human agony, half wolf-like howl. The flickering intensified, his outline blurring into a column of frantic, grey static. He was losing cohesion, unravelling at the seams of his existence.
I didn't wait. Logic was useless here. Comfort was a liability. He wasn't a man in pain; he was a fire going out. The tether wasn't enough for him anymore; the temple was pressing too hard, and Flynn had always been the one most likely to slip. And you don't reason with a fire. You give it something to burn.
I launched myself across the stone floor.
I hit him with the full weight of my star-metal body. The impact sent us both staggering back, slamming him hard against a crumbling wall carved with faded hunting scenes. Stone dustrained down on us. He grunted, the air punched from his lungs. The flickering faltered for a second.
He snarled, lashing out, but I was faster. I pinned him. I drove my metal knee into his sternum, using my superior density to hold him fast. I grabbed his wrists, my metal hand closing around his right, my flesh hand gripping his left, and slammed them against the wall on either side of his head.
His amber eyes were blown wide, swimming with a terror so profound it had no name. He was staring into the abyss, and the abyss was winning.
I didn’t speak.
Words were hollow things here.
I leaned in, pressing my body against his, maximizing the points of contact. I forced him to feel the unyielding reality of me. The heat of my breath misting on his skin. The impossible, solid weight of my bones.
I brought my face close to his, until all he could see was me. I forced him to smell my scent, the ozone of my magic, the tang of metal, the smell of rain that clung to me like a memory of another world. A real noise in the static of his senses.
The flickering slowed. His breathing was a frantic, terrified pant.
Then, I spoke. The words were a low growl, hammered into the space between us.
“We did this before. In the garden.”
His eyes twitched. A flicker of recognition. Olympus. The crystal weeping willow. The shame that had almost broken him then.
“You’re on the edge again, Flynn,” I whispered, my voice raw. “And I’m right here. I’ll bring you back as many times as I have to. So stop trying to go over.”
A tear tracked through the dust on his cheek. He shook his head, a violent, negative motion.Can’t... It’s in my blood... the quiet...
“Then I’ll be in your blood too,” I snarled.
I closed the final inch between us and crushed my mouth to his.
It was an attack. A shock to the system. I bit his lip, tasting the copper tang of his blood, grounding him in the primal reality of pain and pleasure. He gasped, a wounded sound, and for a heartbeat, he resisted.
Then, he shattered.
The restraint, the fear, the fight, it all dissolved into a singular, desperate need. He roared into my mouth, a sound of pure, animal hunger, and surged against me. My hold on his wrists became a mutual grip, his claws digging into the back of my hand, my metal fingers bruising his flesh. The pain was an anchor for both of us.
This wasn't intimacy. It was triage. It was a frantic, desperate act of marking.
I tore my mouth from his and attacked his neck, sinking my teeth into the tense muscle of his shoulder. I branded him with my scent, my taste, my fury. I forced his senses to overload onme, drowning out the seductive nothingness of the void.
His hands ripped at my clothes, tearing the fabric aside. He freed me from the constraints of my armor, needing skin. He found the seam on my left side, where metal met flesh, and his flickering fingers traced the line, his touch a desperate question.Real? Are you real?
"I'm real," I gasped, grinding my hips against his. I hooked my leg around his, the smooth, unyielding cold of my star-metal shin sliding against the rough heat of his thigh.
