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“Where is he?” she couldn’t help butask.
And why wasn’t he worried she woulddie?
“He could not be seen running out after you,” Rafe said grimly. “If the Court thought he cared about the fate of one of hisslaves—”
Bree squeezed her eyes tight. “I don’t want to hear anymore.”
Rafe let out a heavy sigh. “Very well. We should get started on yourhealing.”
Bree nodded, swallowing hard. It was time to change into the beast, something she dreaded with every bone in her body. Rafe held her hand and talked her through it, murmuring the same words he’d said before. Bree pictured the beast, letting images of her other form consume hermind.
Fury and pain roared through Bree. Her beast churned within her gut, sharpening her fangs and her claws. A strange, delicious desire tore through her, making her jaws ache with a need she’d tried so hard to throwaway.
She wanted blood. No, she needed it. Every fiber of her beastly form craved it in a way that made her mind feel delirious and damned to an eternity full of nothing butsuffering.
Suffering that Prince Taveon had demanded sheendure.
Another roar split from her throat, and her back arched so that her fists could reach for the sky. Moonlight slashed in through the tiny window overhead, its silvery glow calling to Bree. She wanted to be outside. She wanted to run through the trees. Searching. Hunting. Taking blood straight from thevein.
“Bree.” A soft, melodic voice drifted to her and cut through the fog in herbrain.
The beast—and Bree—looked down at the creature below. The male was half her size, though he radiated a kind of power that made him feel ten times taller. A kind of power that the beast ached to consume. Saliva dripped from her fangs and splatted on the stoneground.
“Hear my voice, Bree. The beast is not you, and you are not thebeast.”
But he was wrong. The beast was all-consuming. Nothing existed in this body anymore but the wolf who raged for flesh andblood.
“You can control it, Bree,” he said softly, reaching out to place a single hand against herfur.
A shudder went through her, and a soft sigh escaped from her mouth. It was a sound that was strange coming from such a monstrouscreature.
“That is it, Bree.” He clutched her fur in his hands, smoothing out the matted edges. He was...pettingher.
A soft delicious warmth spread through her, and that strange bloodlust became muted in the back of her mind. Her focus drifted to that hand on her fur. The ache in her jaw eased away, and her claws began toshorten.
“That is it,” Rafe murmured, still stroking her side, even as the monstrous fur gave way to flesh. “You are doing sowell.”
Rafe’s arm slid around her back as her human form took hold. He pulled her close and whispered in her ear, keeping her tight against his chest when the sobs shook through her body. She had come so close to losing it. The beast had burned deep within her gut, making her feel things she never wanted tofeel.
This was not what Bree wanted to be. She’d tried so hard to escape this monster, and she’d hoped it was gone forgood.
But itwasn’t.
“How is your wound?” Rafeasked.
Bree suddenly became all too aware of the fact that his arms were wrapped tight around her and that her face was pressed up against his chest. And that she was very muchnaked.
Her cheeks flamed, and she swallowed hard, grateful that he couldn’t see the redness in herface.
“It feels fine now,” she said in a smallvoice.
Should she pull away? Should she try to grab her clothes? Should she look athim?
No, she couldn’t look athim.
“Good,” he said. “Then it is time to get you back to your quarters so you can get somerest.”
His words shot a bolt of clarity through her frazzled thoughts. Here she was, freaking out that Rafe was holding her while she was naked, letting her emotions get the better of her. Again. When he didn’t even react to the fact she had zero clothes on. He probably didn’t even notice. Instead, he was telling her it was time for her to go back to her damncell.
