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I halted across from the rug and stared at him. “What?”
“It’s something a friend of mine learned how to make.”
“A friend … you mean a witch?”
“Yeah, well, she’s still technically a witch, but now she’s also a vampire.”
I shook my head. Dear moon, what was going on? So while we were all in here suffering, Shane was out there making friends with a witch who could make invisibility potions?
Jealousy whipped through me—it was the damn bond. Not my real feelings. “You left again.” I had almost said you left me again. That wouldn’t have been pretty.
“You told me to go.”
“I was mad at you!” I almost yelled but lowered my voice. I didn’t need Phell to barge in here and find Shane. “I am mad at you.”
“All right, time to air everything out. Why are you mad at me?”
“Because …” I pressed my lips in a tight line. Damn it. “Because you left us a year ago, because you left me two nights ago.”
“I didn’t leave of my own will in either of those instances. The first one, I was spelled and taken by force. The second one …” He stepped onto the rug, erasing two of the several steps between us. “You’re the one who ran from me. I tried going after you, but there were too many demons around the house.”
“I went back there the following night,” I confessed, my voice low.
He shook his head once. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there, but I spent the next day and night going from pack to pack in the region, trying to make alliances.”
My chest expanded. “Alliances?”
“Raika.” Shane took two more steps toward me. I held my breath. “Hear me out. I’ve never wanted to leave you or the others behind. If I had known you were still here, I would have fought harder. I would have come for you the second I escaped the witches.”
I frowned. “You didn’t fight them?”
“I believed my pack had been killed, my home destroyed. I had nowhere to go, no one to go back to. I was alone and wished the witches would kill me instead.”
I sucked in a sharp breath. That must had been horrible. My heart hurt for him. “I’m sorry.”
“Not more than I am.” Another two steps. There were only three or four feet between us now. His unwavering eyes held mine. “I’m here now. I’m sorry I wasn’t here last night. I was busy trying to find help. I won’t go anywhere until I free you, Minsi, Tyren, and everyone else.”
A lump rose in my throat and I fought against tears. This was too much. “I must be dreaming.”
Shane erased the distance between us. He stood in my personal space and looked down at me. “Why? Talk to me.”
I glanced up at him. “This feels like a dream, you suddenly showing up and saving the day. Don’t get me wrong, I want to believe it, to hold on to it with both my hands, but … after the year I've had, I’m not willing to give hope an inch of room.”
Shane nodded. Slowly, he reached for me and took my hand in his.
I let him, savoring the feel of his big hand swallowing mine, of his warm skin on mine. But then I pulled my hand free, taking a step back.
His brows curled down. “We should talk about us. About the mating bond.”
I shook my head. “No, we shouldn’t. There’s nothing to talk about.”
“Raika, you know how this works.”
“Yes, I do,” I snapped.
During our last year of school, we learned about mates in health class. The mating bond was normal between wolves, but at least a quarter of them never found true mates. But when the mating bond snapped, it meant the two wolves belonged together. They were two pieces of one soul, one heart. The attraction was instant and strong and almost impossible to resist. In fact, resisting was unheard of since all wolves were more than happy to find their mates and spend the rest of their lives with them.
All wolves, but Shane.
