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All to save me.
Still, instinct leads the way. I move slower now, pulling myself up onto a small dirt ledge on the side of the mountain overlooking the fortress below. I just drop to my knees there, panting.
Silence finds me, clutching hold of the edge. I barely hang on.
Down there…Down there, Dušan is battling one, two…ten of them to protect me.
I shudder.“Hide. I’ll find you.”
I hold on to those words, looking around. The soft glow of the full moon hugs the contours. I can’t climb anymore. I get to my feet and stagger backward from the edge, shoving my heels against the stone until my spine meets the coolness of the mountain.
Lightning flickers high up in the clouds, far off in the distance. Up here, the world spreads out before me, leaving only thoughts and memories behind. I drag my knees upward and pull them close.
Is Dušan still fighting? How many can he battle before one of them takes him down? I bite my lower lip as a shudder courses through my body. A snarl echoes through my mind, savage and unwelcome.
“No, stay away from me,” I whisper, stilling the beast inside me that pushes forward.
Claws scrape under the skin of my knees before the tips push against my skin.
Fear bursts through me that my wolf will come now—tonight.Here.
I close my eyes as the faint echo of thunder rumbles through the sky, and that creature inside me reacts, lifting her head to inhale the faint scent of ozone.
I don’t know how long I wait. Minutes feel like a lifetime as I watch the storm slowly creep closer, lightening the sky with neon flashes of white. Each second it rolls toward me, I feel that desperation inside.
I need to leave this place—leave Dušan—or by morning, there’ll be no reason to leave. By morning, they’ll have found me. Tears slip down my cheeks at the guilt I feel for sneaking out. I brush them away with the back of my hand and then shove against the ground.
“Don’t tell me you’re leaving already.”
The low, guttural growl is punctured with slow heavy breaths. Dušan limps forward, coming out of the darkness like a god. Lightning cleaves through the sky behind him, and for a second, my heart pounds into the back of my throat.
He stumbles forward, holding his left arm against his body. He tries to hide the pain from me as he lifts his gaze, but wolves heal fast. A long scratch mars his cheek and his shirt is torn along the middle, one shoulder completely gone, torn by fangs and claws.
His boot scrapes as he stumbles forward, his ocean blue eyes searching my face before he slowly takes in all of me.
He saved me…protected me, and he could have died in the process.
“Why?” The word slips from my lips. “Why risk your life like that?”
“If I have to explain it, then I’ve done a pretty piss poor job of showing you before now.”
My breath catches as he approaches me. Only this time, I’m not moving backward. This time, I’m not running.
“I don’t want this.” I shake my head. “I don’t want any of this.”
“And yet, that won’t change a thing. You have a wolf inside you, Meira. One you can’t cut out. One you can’t deny forever. You’re at the crossroads here. You can either die, or embrace what you are and learn that with the downsides, there are some pretty amazing positives.”
“Yeah, like what?”
He reaches up, grasps the back of his shirt, and drags it over his head. Muscles cord, clenching tightly as he drops the ruined garment to the ground. “Faster healing abilities, for one thing.” His arm doesn’t droop as much anymore, and I catch him straightening. “And also smell,” he continues. “For instance, I can smell the hares running frantically from the storm…can you?”
I draw in the air through my nose, letting the sweet scent carry me away. Panic tastes bitter under the sweetness. “Yes.”
“Just like how I can smell your wolf. I can smell her hunger—her need. I can smell that she’s ready to come through. That shewantsto come through.”
My pulse speeds up with his words. The thought of that—of being out of control—terrifies me. “I…”
“I can’t fight them forever,” he murmurs as he steps closer. “But I will for as long as I can ,if that’s what you want.”
