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For a long while, he said nothing. “There is a possibility. But what I do shouldn’t matter to you. Your family and your life? That is what you should focus on.”
Her eyes narrowed to slits. “And if you do die during the challenge?”
He answered her honestly. “It’s a risk I’m willing to take.”
He made it sound so trivial. As if death meant nothing to him, when the mere thought of it… Seemed to tear at something inside of her. Maybe it was the aftereffects of the mating bond? Or perhaps he just didn’t know her as well as he seemed to think.
“Let me help you,” she blurted in a rush. “I can do what you did for me. You said it was fear that stood in your way last time. I can take away your doubt. Iwantto. I know you think I should hate what you did for me… But I don’t.”
Good, because he hated himself enough for them both. Though, should he? Wincing, he thought back to the person she’d been the first time they met in person—a fearful creature living under a mantra of hiding in the face of danger. In her own way, she’d broken free of that shell and was able to face her life without flinching. That mattered more than any show of force, or protection he could have offered.
More than a bond.
“You helped me,” she reiterated. “Let me help you. If you can look at this without the pain clouding your judgment, that could be all the difference.”
“No.” He shook his head. “I won’t ask you to do that for me—”
“You aren’t asking.” She whipped around to face him. “I know you want to push me away, but I’m not a child. I want to help you because I care for you. I do… I always did.”
A part of him lurched, aching to believe her, though he knew better. She cared for him. From the day he saved her from school bullies and gave her a spare bit of food out of kindness.
And he had always cared for her…
“Let me,” she insisted. “Please. Let me do this.”
“No.” He moved away from her, turning his focus to the sky. “Let me be the noble one for once.”
“I don’t want noble. I just want… I want you.”
His heart throbbed, even as the logical part of his brain listed a million reasons why she was misguided. He settled for voicing just one. “You don’t know what you want.”
“Stop telling me that! Stop talking at all.” Her eyes flashed, and he stiffened in alarm. Uh-oh. Loren Connors alone wasn’t speaking to him now. These words came from a part of her she couldn’t control—not anymore. “It’s my turn to be in charge.”
He saw her lunge, but surprisingly, he wasn’t fast enough to dodge the attack. Her hands collided with his chest, pushing him back a step. He couldn’t silence the growl that broke loose.
“Loren, don’t—”
“I don’t want to be a burden to you. I want to be your equal. So let me set a rule for once. If I can’t shift here and now, then you go into battle alone.”
A lethal curiosity kept him from refusing outright. Damn her. Even now, he couldn’t back down from a blatant challenge. “And if you can?”
He wouldn’t humor her. No way in hell. Still…
A part of him craved to hear her answer.
She went silent for a heartbeat. Then she squared her chin, her gaze alight with the confidence of a new lycan. “Then I run, and you catch me.”
He fought to smother a groan.Fuck.This was going too far. A good man would end it. Not ask, “And then what?”
“If you can’t, then I win.”
She licked her lips, and his abdomen pulsed. Bill, the man, immediately took a backseat to the wolf within him. She wanted to play?
Then, just this once, he’d humor her request.
“Is that your final offer?” he asked in a voice he didn’t recognize.
Her nod just spurred on the dangerous impulse building within him.
