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I hadn’t realized until then how much I was resisting, trying to tread water while he held me.
I floated in the water with my head cradled against his shoulder as he gently washed my hair. His fingers against my scalp felt heavenly, and my eyes drifted shut.
Why couldn’t every moment between Damyn and I be like this?
All too soon, the moment was over and he carried me out of the water. He scrubbed the worst of the blood out of our clothes carefully, as best he could, trying to keep from soaking the clothes entirely. Then he dressed me again, and I let him even though I felt stronger now. Still tired, but stronger.
“I can walk, Damyn,” I told him when he started to lift me into his arms again.
“Fine, you can walk, of course you can, you can do anything,” he said, but he still held me close and didn’t put me down. “I want you to recover, though. Rest all you can.”
I didn’t feel all that restful when I was cradled against his rock hard chest.
He reminded me, “We need you to be strong enough to use your bond with the others.” He cast a meaningful look at my throat.
I touched the marks, which always seemed warm no matter how cool the weather outside. “We should talk about what happened.”
“You mean the way we marked each other?” His brows rose.
“Yes.”
“There’s nothing to talk about. It was an intense moment; your magic went wild.”
“You marked me back, Damyn.” I ran my fingertip over the mate mark, which throbbed when I looked at my mark on him. “That means something.”
For the first time, he looked as if he were at a loss for words. Finally, he said, “Honor. I’ve known you since you were born.”
“Yes, you have. And now here I am, grown up.”
He scoffed at that, and I had a feeling he would have walked away if he hadn’t been carrying me. He couldn’t escape. “Sometimes.”
“Damyn.”
He sighed. “We can sort it out when the war is over. Right now, all I want is to keep you safe.”
“Of course you do.” I let my head fall onto his shoulder. “It’s only natural, when you’re my mate.”
He sighed again, his chest rising against my arm as he inhaled and exhaled dramatically.
But he was carrying me through the forest, his powerful arms wrapped around me, his heart beating against my cheek.
Even though he wouldn’t admit it, we both knew it was true.
CHAPTER42
Damyn
I barteredwith the owner of a farmhouse for dinner, a night’s protection—and hiding. He didn’t know if I was a prey or a predator shifter—we all used to have a sixth sense for what each other was, but now that sense was gone, like a third eye suddenly snapped shut—and given we were in prey territory, that was probably for the best.
I gave him the hammered silver disc I’d carried since I was a kid, one I’d found in my mother’s jewelry box before the dragon knights took me away. It was probably a random piece of jewelry she’d bought at a fair or market, but I’d convinced myself as a kid that my father had hammered it for her. That I was wearing something made by his hands.
Sometimes we lie to ourselves, and sometimes we’re better for it.
But in the end, it was just a piece of jewelry. Honor looked at me strangely, started to ask, and I told her it was nothing.
“I thought we don’t lie to each other,” she said.
“Oh, are you turning over a new leaf?”
