“Pretty sure it’s relevant to your question,” Lilly said dryly.
Lucian reached over and rested a hand on Gerick’s shoulder.The weight of it landed like an anchor.“Whatever you need, we’re here.Pack.For life.”
“I would like it noted that I do not agree.”Peri crossed her arms, indignation filling her eyes.“While I have oddly grown feelings for the cotton candy loving nut job, mostly because she likes sharp objects and stabbing people, I might have to zap her if she makes a dumb choice.”She paused.“Hell, she’s sort of known for making dumbass decisions.That means I’ll be digging her a pee grave.And right in the middle of the apocalypse.You’d think she’d be a little more considerate of her bad timing.”Then she threw her hands up.“Oh well, we do what we have to, when we have to.”
Gerick didn’t address the high fae’s commentary.He couldn’t.He was too caught in his own circling thoughts about what might or might not be happening inside the Nushtonia.
More than anything, he just wanted her to be okay.To know she wasn’t suffering.To make sure she had cotton candy again, and got to see Tenia.Maybe his bond with her wasn’t like the bond between mated wolves.Maybe what he was carrying now wasn’t shaped the way a wolf’s grief was shaped.He wasn’t sure that was a bad thing.It was a different kind of pain, that was all.A different kind of waiting.
And it wasn’t something he needed to dwell on.What he needed to focus on was getting her out of the book.
The rest could be dealt with after.
CHAPTER14
"Hope is a dangerous thing underground.It grows roots before you realize it, and by the time fear comes calling, you’re already tangled in it."~Nick
Nick stoodnear the mouth of the cavern chamber he and Kara had been given, arms folded across his chest, and watched pale blue mist drift through the massive stone corridors beyond.Somewhere deeper in the mountain, water tapped against rock in an uneven rhythm that sounded more deliberate than natural, like the realm was keeping time to something he couldn’t see.No candles burned in the outer halls this morning.Veins of glowing mineral ran through the walls themselves, casting soft silver light across the cavern floor in long, branching threads.
Morning.
Or whatever passed for morning when they hadn’t seen an actual sun in well, he actually wasn’t exactly sure.
He scrubbed a hand down his jaw and glanced back over his shoulder.
The bed had been carved directly into the stone wall, deep enough that the furs piled across it caught the silver light only at the edges.Soft gray pelts.Heavy black ones beneath.The trolls had brought them in sometime during the night without making a sound, which Nick still found mildly insulting on principle, considering wolves were supposed to hear everything.Kara hadn’t woken once.
She lay curled on her side beneath the blankets now, one hand resting low across the curve of her stomach, dark curls spilling across the pillow.Her mouth was slightly parted.Her breathing had finally slowed to something that resembled actual rest.
His wolf settled at the sight of her.Just like that.The constant low hum under his skin went quiet.
Mine.
The thought rolled through him with enough weight to plant his boots firmer against the stone.
A week, no two.It had been at least two weeks.
Time in the Troll Realm had started slipping around the edges in ways he didn’t trust.Sleep came heavier here.Hunger hit at random intervals, mid-conversation, halfway through a sparring drill, in the middle of the night for no reason.The glowing crystals dimmed and brightened in cycles that almost matched a day, but not quite, and he’d stopped trying to count them.Wadim had given up calculating elapsed time on day five, which was, in Nick’s experience, the surest sign of something supernatural being wrong.Wadim never gave up calculating anything.To be fair, the trolls had given him access to their records, so the historian was pretty much in heaven.
And Kara.
Nick’s chest tightened as his gaze drifted back to the curve under her hand.
There was no denying the change.The slight roundness from before had deepened into something unmistakable over the past several days.Her breasts had grown fuller.Her face carried a soft warmth beneath her freckles that made her look stronger and more vulnerable at the same time, a combination he hadn’t known was possible until he’d seen it on her.Even her scent had changed again.Richer now.Threaded through with something ancient his wolf didn’t fully understand but answered to anyway, the way a compass answered north.
Protect.
The urge had taken up permanent residence under his skin.Restless.Pacing.It didn’t sleep when he slept, and it didn’t quiet when she was safe in his arms.It just paced.
Kara stirred against the blankets with a small sound and cracked one eye open.
“You’re staring again.”
Nick huffed softly.“Can you blame me?”
“Yes.”Her voice was thick with sleep as she pushed herself upright against the stone headboard, the furs sliding down to pool at her hips.“You’re being weird.”
“You claim I’m always weird.”
