She didn’t answer, and he realized she’d fallen asleep.
He grabbed the blanket off the arm of the couch and draped it over them, then toed off his shoes and settled down into the cushions.
“Rest well,Nightling, you’re safe with me.”
Her magic seemed to hum in acknowledgement of him, and his wolf growled softly in response, already fully charmed by her.
His sweet Kaeli.
Protective instincts flared inside him as a faint memory of his parents embracing flashed through his mind, and his father calling his mother by the nickname he’d given to Kaeli, an anchor to his past he hadn’t consciously made, but he liked it.
He might be a bridge to her magics uniting, but she seemed to be a bridge to his past, to finding peace and making a home.
To the future.
Closing his eyes, he rested his arms around her and vowed to keep her safe no matter what.
ChapterSeven
Kaeli woke slowly, disoriented for a moment as her mind sorted through the events of the last day.She smiled to herself as she recognized the warmth of the male next to her on the couch, his arms snugly around her, his chest rising and falling as he slept.
Solan.
A dream pricked at the edges of her subconscious, but she couldn’t quite grasp what had made her wake or what she’d been dreaming about.She glanced around the space that felt both brand new and familiar at the same time.Judging by the dark sky she could see through the blinds, it was still night, but she didn’t know how long she’d been asleep or what time it was.
At first, all she felt was comfort and safety.
But then she noticed something tickling at the background of all that safety and warmth: ahum.
Her skin tingled, and the air grew heavy.The room actually feltalive.
The magics within her weren’t calm anymore; they were thrumming like an engine revving.
Energy curled under her skin, and she sat up, pressing her hand to her chest as her heart pounded.The blinds rattled as a wind that didn’t belong indoors blew around the room, like a storm drawing in from the ocean.She could feel her magic colliding within her—North and South—earth and fire, cold and hot.
Her breath caught in her throat as she felt the twin magic of her powers rise inside her, and she was as helpless to stop it as if she’d been caught in a riptide.
Solan stirred awake beside her, and her magic reacted, lashing out toward him with greedy hands, pouring earth and fire out into the room as if she’d opened a door to let everything out.
He let out a sharp, pained sound, and then she felt a hot blast behind her.She tumbled off the couch, catching herself and watching as he shifted into a wolf, clothes shredding and a howl ripping from his throat.
She clutched at the blanket that had been over them, trying to fight the rush of her powers as the house shook and the windows rattled.Something was very wrong with her powers!They weren’t responding to her attempts to rein them in.
Solan lunged at her, jaws wide, fangs gleaming.
But she wasn’t afraid.
He clamped his jaws on her wrist and bit down.The bite was fast and deep, and blood welled from the wounds.
The surge of her magics suddenly stopped like someone had locked them back up.But she hadn’t done anything except panic.
Solan hummed and extracted his fangs, licking across the wounds a few times.He sat back on his haunches next to her on the floor and let out a low, curious whine.His eyes had been wild, but they weren’t anymore.They were amber with bright gold striations, watchful and curious.When she lifted her hand to look at her wrist, he leaned into her palm and pressed his muzzle to the wound as if apologizing.
The house stilled, the air cleared, and the scent of pine and ozone filled the space.
Fresh like the air after a storm.
He leaned back, his fur bristling slightly, and lifted a paw to rest on her thigh.She looked at her wrist, where scarred teeth marks now marked her skin.He’d bound them together as mates through the bite, the bond between them humming in her veins.
