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With one determined bash of his shoulder, Nathair broke the gate enough to cave it in. He shoved his clawed fingers into the gap he’d made, and pushed until the wooden slat locking the door cracked when he broke it in half. Within a second, he was able to shove the gate open with little strength, and the double doors bashed against the walls when they swung inwards.

Everything seemed calm until it suddenly wasn’t.

Somewhere from the middle of the village, people ran to escape. A woman stumbled as she held her dress up with one hand, while holding the hand of a small youngling with the other. She tugged the youngling down an alleyway to escape the fight he could hear from deeper within.

I cannot breathe.He stilled his lungs.If there was a thick blood scent in the air, the humans wouldn’t be running from each other, but him.I won’t be able to find her without my sense of smell.

He’d been intending to find the centre of the village and lurk in it until it was safe to breathe. They should be used to his non-violent presence by now, and knew what he sought. They’d be fools not to realise what he craved.

Nathair risked it. He risked taking a small breath – and instantly regretted it. His orbs shifted red and the invisiblehands of bloodlust massaged his brain, only for claws to tear at his empty stomach. Hunger blasted him at the thick blood scent.

So fresh. So tasty. Sotantalising.

No!He shook his head and let out a wheeze.No.He backed up. He had to back up.

He didn’t make it far in his retreat through the gaping entrance before a man dressed in a navy jacket ran towards him. His face was familiar, even if his blood-soaked hair looked messier than usual. His brown eyes locked onto Nathair, and they never left his skull as he sprinted.

Kai held his shoulder, and blood trickled down his arm.

Behind him, a soldier gave chase, until a random villager tackled the soldier from the side. They smashed against the ground and formed a writhing mass of battering limbs as they fought each other.

“Please,” Kai pleaded, reaching out to Nathair as he passed through the gate to meet him. A dagger lodged to the hilt in his back glinted in the disappearing light. “Please, help us.”

Nathair looked past him, wishing a certain pretty female would run to him for protection. She wasn’t in the crowd of running humans who were beginning to dwindle out as they made it to the safety of their homes.

A soldier nocked an arrow and aimed it for Kai’s back. With a hiss, Nathair caught it as he darted behind the man to protect him, only to toss the weapon. He spun around the male and shoved him down until Kai’s back rested against his tail, now protecting him from all sides.

He grabbed the hilt of the dagger in the male’s back, yanked it free, and grabbed his throat. Nathair healed him of his possibly fatal wound, and parted his maw to give a rattling, growly hiss.Speak!

“They took her,” Kai stated up to him, his eyes wide and frantic. “Last night, they took Linh. They wouldn’t let us seeher, wouldn’t let us speak with her. When we had enough this afternoon, we found the Priestess watching over her tied to her bed.”

Nathair tightened his hand on Kai’s throat. For a second, he considered pulverising it.

I gave her to you to protect! To keep safe! How dare you let her be taken?!He lifted his sight to the village, wondering when or how they snuck past him.

Nathair raised the claws of his free hand to strike in vengeance for their negligence. Her own father couldn’t keep her safe – not just once, but twice.Fucking useless!

As he lowered his sight back to Kai’s twisted expression, he took in the male’s eyes. Their brown was remarkably similar to Linh’s, and they lacked malice. They were gentle, and the gaze of someone who didn’t want to be cruel. Kind, like hers. Pretty, even.

He faltered in his strike.He’s her father.

She’dhateNathair if he killed her parent. She’d grow to resent him, even if the male was part of the reason she wasgone.

“This,” Kai said, grabbing Nathair’s free hand poised above him. He lowered two of Nathair’s clawed fingers, only to do the same with his own hand.

It’s the same gesture she gave me that day.The one she’d giggled at him.

“It means ‘I love you,’” Kai stated, with his brows furrowed at Nathair’s skull. “We didn’t get a chance to speak about you for long, but she said you were safe. That we can trust you. I know my daughter. I know she wouldn’t say this to just anyone.”

For a moment, all his fear and worry eased.She said she loves me?Fuck, that warmed his heart so deeply it spread tenderness throughout his entire body. She even said ittohim, just in the most insanely obscure way.

He was thankful he now knew how to say it, as he’d never needed those three words before. He’d been trying to figure out his own sign for it, so he could say it to her when he, she – they – were ready. Or, when he thought she would be ready to hear it.

He hadn’t wanted to pressure her. It was the last thing he wanted to do.I’ve been waiting for her to say it, so I could finally return it.

“If you feel the same way, please save her.” Kai grabbed Nathair’s hand with both his own and pressed his forehead against the combined hold. “Bragg’s men must have made their own route out of the village. They’re dangerous, Nathair. We aren’t a military town.”

His head reared back, and he let the male’s throat go.She told them my name.