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“Can I fix those?” She tilted her head toward his ankles, the left so horribly swollen she wasn’t even sure how he’d managed to put weight on it.
Rion nodded and she reached for his discolored skin. A gentle touch was all it took for a hiss to escape his lips. The selfish part of her wanted to touch so much more, but the rational part told her he deserved space.
Arianna mended the swelling before moving onto the other side. “What happened?”
“I removed the shackles.”
“With what, a rock?” That earned her a tiny smirk. Her heart soared.
“Well, I didn’t have much else to work with.” Gods, he was serious. How long had it taken him? She reached for his wrist before stopping herself.
“May I?” His brow furrowed, perplexed, and he extended the left one first. The short chain rattled and she resisted the urge to growl at the offending metal. Arianna needed to remove those. She wasn’t sure if her knife was small enough to work the lock, but she certainly wasn’t going to let him take a rock to them again. She healed the other wrist, then waited.
“Where else?”
Rion sat very still before glancing toward his mother and the girl. Both had fallen asleep near the fire with Talon standing guard. Her friend was trying his best to give the two a moment of privacy in the small space.
Rion sat forward, wincing with the movement, and removed his shirt. He failed to keep the chains from rattling, but the females didn’t stir.
Arianna sucked in a breath at the marks covering his body. Bites, cuts, and stab wounds that could have been days or a week old. Bruises of every size and burns, too. He looked like someone had strung him up and—
Arianna reached for the bite wound over his ribs, the worst of the bunch, then hesitated. Before she could even speak, Rion said, “You don’t need to ask permission to touch me.”
“I just thought after—”
“I am yours,” Rion said. “Do with me whatever you wish.”
Hers. He was hers. She’d claimed him and he her.
Arianna went to work.
Rion sat unnaturally still as she moved from one wound to another. His skin slowly shifted back to a normal color.
Rion’s heart beat wildly and his breathing came in erratic gasps that mirrored her own, but she stayed focused—or tried to stay focused.
His scent beckoned her home and Arianna dared to lean closer. Then he leaned in, too. Her heart skipped a beat when Rion pressed a lingering kiss to her hair.
Every muscle in Arianna’s body stiffened as she jerked back, recoiling from his touch.
Recoiling from her mate.
Hurt flashed across Rion’s face before he could hide it. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have.” But he craved her, just as she was craving him, and that stupid fear wouldn’t let her have him. Talon had called it normal, but it wasn’t normal to fear ones mate. Nothing about this entire mess was normal.
“Don’t apologize,” she said, feeling her voice tremble even as she fought to keep it steady.
Silence stretched between them, but he wouldn’t look at her. Probably couldn’t for fear of what he’d see.
Tears welled in Arianna’s eyes because their bond was hanging by a single thread and there was no telling what tomorrow would bring or what the next hour might bring. What if this was it? The only moment they’d get to reconcile? Niall could find them and just as easily tear them apart again.
Her hands were shaking, but Arianna forced herself to reach out.
Talon shot to his feet, then Rion and his mother were up, too.
“We have to go. Now,” Talon said. He grabbed the pack but didn’t pause to extinguish the fire. Rion threw on his shirt and they all followed him into the rain.
The downpour had finally shifted to a light drizzle as they sprinted. Rion’s mother carried the child on her back now, no longer limping. Neither was Rion, and he looked far more alert than he’d been just a little while ago.
Arianna listened to their feet hitting the soggy ground, then the echo of more closing in from the rear. The climb uphill would be too slow and there wasn’t a path that led around.
