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“Very little. He bit my wrist.”

“And it didn’t hurt?”

“The bite did. What came after...” Her cheeks turned pink. “Not so much.”

Cairn’s wings lifted slightly. His attention fixed on his mate.

I did not want to know more. My body did.

Robyn’s scent had changed. There was something warmer beneath the rain and mud, subtle but impossible to ignore. Her hand was still resting on my bare waist. Each movement of her fingers sent another pulse of heat through me.

I wanted to turn towards her. I wanted to put my mouth against her wrist and find out if her blood tasted as enticing as it smelled.

I wanted to bite.

“No,” I said.

Robyn blinked. “No?”

“I will not drink your blood.”

“Nobody said I was offering.”

“Good.”

We looked at each other. There was fire in her eyes, matching the heat everywhere in my body. Was this what having a mate felt like for all gharrgoils? I doubted it. This was special. Something unique. And yet… She was human, from a planet where I couldn’t survive for long. She was soft and warm while I was a hardened warrior. She was caring, a healer, while I killed for a living. We were not made for each other. Yet she had woken me. That meant something.

She removed her hand from my waist. Cold immediately followed, though not enough for petrification to begin.

I missed her touch immediately.

Cloch.

“The blood may help your wing heal,” Cairn said. “It restored my strength and stopped the stone from returning.”

“I said no.”

“Stop tempting him,” Georgie told her mate. “This is not his decision anyway. It’s Robyn’s.”

I wanted to argue. It was very much my decision. I could refuse if Robyn offered. But I stayed quiet. Arguing with Cairn’s mate seemed like a very bad idea.

Robyn folded her arms. “Could we postpone the blood-drinking argument until we’re somewhere warm and dry? Sten needs rest, and I would like to have a hot cup of tea and change out of my muddy clothes.”

The thought of her removing those clothes appeared in my mind before I could stop it.

Her jacket hid most of her figure, but I already knew how soft she was. I had felt her body against my side as she helped me walk. My gaze dropped to the curves beneath the wet fabric.

Robyn caught me looking.

I turned away.

“We should go,” I said.

Pam and Georgie started along the path while Cairn walked on my injured side. Robyn stayed on the other. I did not need both of them helping me, but neither seemed interested in my opinion.

The connection moved with Robyn, a steady pull beneath my ribs. Even when she walked behind me, I knew exactly where she was. I recognised it now as the same presence I had sensed while trapped in stone.

She had been calling to me from the south without knowing I existed.