But he doesn't stop coming, blood leaks from a fresh gash across his face, catching in the grooves of his scales, seeping between his jaws as he moves.
He won’t hurt me, I tell myself, he knows who I am. He has to know who I am, but fuck do I wish I had that talisman right about now.
Magic sparks at my fingertips, faint but stronger than before as my back hits the tree. I push myself into it as much as I can, sharp bark digging into my bare legs as Cal keeps prowling forward, his face lowering closer, nostrils flaring. So close nowthat I can see myself reflected in his eyes, his pupils long and thin like arrow slits, locked on me.
“Talen...?” The question barely makes it past the pressure in my throat. “Are you in there?”
Swallowing hard, I lift my hand toward the red gash. Cal growls in warning, the sound so deep it makes my pulse stumble, but I don’t pull away. Slowly, I place my fingers just below the wound.
Instantly, his pupils blow wide and something shifts.
One moment my fingers are pressed to Cal’s hot rough scales, his massive body shadowing over me. The next, everything gives way at once, scales smoothing into warm skin, bone and muscle folding down until Talen’s cheek is cupped in my palm.
Before I can pull back, he moves. Fast. His hand closes around my wrist, tearing it from his face and pinning it above my head as his body moves in, crowding mine against the tree.
“Thorn…” he murmurs my name in the same deep growl as Cal, and my body doesn’t seem to understand that he’s human again because every muscle goes taut against the trunk behind me. “What are you doing here? I know Lucien told you to stay in the tent.” The gold in his eyes burns so bright against his black training uniform I can barely see the hazel beneath it.
“You’re hurt.” I reach my other hand toward the wound on his face, but he catches that one too, dragging it up beside the first until both my wrists are locked above my head and his full weight is pressed against mine.
“It's nothing.” His head cocks. “Just a run-in with a scout on the way back.”
Looking me up and down, he drags his gaze over me, like a predator assessing prey. The way his jacket hangs off my shoulders, the bare skin of my legs beneath it, the tight pull of skin at my neck where my pulse is flickering far too fast.
His tongue slips over his bottom lip, and my thighs press together.
“You shouldn't be out here. I have limited control in the Outerlands at the best of times. But right after shifting…” His nostrils flare and his grip tightens slightly on my wrists. “My sense of smell, my sense of touch, my sense oftaste…” His jaw flexes. “Everything is on fucking fire right now.”
The warning settles deep in my stomach, and my fingers twitch against his.
“I need to find Ahria.” I reply, bracing my legs, trying to steady the tremor growing in them. “Every second I wait here is another second the bond might not seal. I thought JC could take me.”
Warmth floods through me, bleeding across from the closeness of his body and my breaths start coming too fast, each inhale catching like I'm starved for air—or maybe just for him—and when I drag in another, my chest rises and brushes his. The contact draws another deep sound from his throat.
“JC would never leave Lucien's side,” his voice is rougher than normal. “And even if she did, the sky is heaving with scouts tonight. Scouts you are currently in no state to face, so whether you like it or not you're stuck here. Nowplease,” he orders through gritted teeth, “go back inside the tent. I'll meet you there in thirty minutes and we can talk about everything that happened today.”
The edge in his tone sends a shiver through me but I force my chin up and shake my head.
“No, I'm done having people tell me what I need tonight. I don't want to spend another moment alone in that tent. Thinking about Neeve, thinking about Ahria. I don't want to talk about it, I don't want to risk falling apart and the bond not sealing.”
“Thorn,” he snarls. “Youneedto walk away.”
“Or else what?” I push back. “You're going to carry me over?”
His gaze darken. “No, you need to walk away because otherwise I’m going to let go of your hands, slide mine under that arse I know is bare beneath that pretty little nightdress, lift you up, and fuck you right here against this tree until you come so hard you forget your own name.” A white-hot rush races up my thighs, settling high between them in a sharp, aching throb. “And youdon’tneed that, not tonight.”
The words barely leave him before he forces himself back an inch, just enough for our bodies to stop touching. The loss hits immediately as cold night air slips between us, and I hadn't realised how much of his warmth I'd been stealing until it's gone.
I swallow hard. “Maybe that's exactly what I need.”
Arching my back, I shift my weight back toward him. Talen catches his bottom lip between his teeth but his fingers fold over mine—restraining himself and keeping the thin, aching distance between us in place.
“After what happened today,” he states, “your body won’t know what itneeds. Fear, shock, wanting not to be alone—they can all feel the same when you’re this far past yourself.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
“Yes. I know I’m in shock. I know I’m scared, and I know my head is a bloody mess, but that doesn’t make this less real.” My voice shakes, but I don’t look away. “If you’re saying I’m stuck here, that I can’t find Ahria and I can’t do anything, then I am not spending the night sitting in that tent thinking myself sick until morning. Hell, I could be dead by morning if the bond doesn't seal.”
