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I couldn’t let them kill him.
Not when I was the only reason he was even there.
“Stop!” I cried out, voice shakier than expected. Not from fear, but from the exhaustion of whatever the hell Vevol had just done to me to create the army in front of us.
Teris spun me out of the way, dropping me on my ass. I clung to him though, wrapping my legs around the back of him so he couldn’t leave, while yelling, “They won’t hurt me! Stop!”
Teris snarled at me, but when he looked over and realized the creatures weren’t attacking him, he went silent for a moment. They were still growling—they weren’t statues who existed only to do what I said. But they had heard me when I told them to stop, and decided to listen to me.
I untangled my legs from around Teris. My knees buckled when my feet hit the floor, and he looped an arm around my middle, holding me up.
“What the hell is going on?” he growled into my ear.
The creatures snarled at him in response, and a few stepped closer to us. Teris’s arm tightened around me, and I knew he was preparing to throw me out of the way again. Something told me he’d move too fast for me to fight him, the second time around.
My fingers dug into his thick, strong arms in an attempt to secure myself to him more completely.
“A lot,” I said weakly. “I’m not strong enough to control them very well yet. I need to rest.”
“Fine.” He gritted the word out in response, and then took one careful step toward the cave’s exit.
The creatures roared, and some of them took threatening steps toward us.
Teris swore, dragging me back a bit. His ass was nearly to the wall, which would give us some amount of safety—and also trap us more. There were a few of the creatures between him and that safety, though.
“They’re going to kill you,” I whispered, my gaze sliding over the monsters. The only way to keep him safe would be to make him smell like me.
And the only way to make him smell like me…
Well, he wasn’t going to like it. The bastard didn’t even want me.
“Way to be positive,” he growled back.
I squeezed his arm. “They won’t hurtme, Ter.”
“So?”
I bit my lip, not wanting to say what I was thinking aloud.
His body went still when he realized what I wasn’t saying.
“Fucking hell,” he muttered. “We’re notmating, Nai.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, just for a moment. I legitimately felt like I could keel over at any damn minute.
“It would be fake,” I whispered. “Temporary.”
“Mate bonds are neverfake.” His voice was low. “We’ll find another way out of this.”
I grimaced, because as far as I could tell, there were no other options. But I didn’t argue, because it was going to have to be his call. His life was the one in danger.
“Hold on tight,” he growled at me.
And then he turned and ran.
Three
Teris slammeda hand against the tree. I felt it in my chest as his magic moved the branches rapidly, widening a gap between the tree’s trunk and the bottom portion of the cave.
