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I was taking backward steps, and I didn’t even know why. It was Goose he was sleeping with, and I had been all wrong. He was in my bed when he could have been in his. He was sleeping with my dog when he could have kicked him out with the pack. The hut was a mess. Roan was a mess. And I was suddenly in a panic.

I needed that bloody axe. I turned back, my pulse in my ears, and my hand hit the side of the chair. Goose woke. One heartbeat later, he was barking.

I bolted, the axe forgotten. I only had it in my mind to flee. I couldn’t let him find me here. I couldn’t face him. Not now, not ever.

But I’d sealed my fate when I’d crept back into that man-boy’s hut, and now I didn’t get the choice.

He caught me. My hand was on the knob when he snagged me by the shoulder and jerked me from my escape.

“Who the hell,” he started, but he never finished his words. With a strength I could never possess, he spun me around and shoved me back into the door. It slammed shut, my back smarting at the impact, and I gasped.

His face was one of hard lines, anger clouding his features. Then his eyes found mine. And it was like a crack ran up the whole of him,something else entirely coming out of the depths. His brow softened, slacked, and his lips pulled apart. His fingers unclamped from my shoulders and his posture sagged.

“Don’t you dare,” I said, thinking he would hand me over to Baer for reckoning. “Don’t call for anyone.”

But he didn’t say a word. His eyes were as wide as oceans, and I wondered if he was even hearing me. The bruise was gone from his cheek, but I could still make out where Axl had broken the skin. He was close. I shifted, uneasy on my feet. He wasn’t wearing a shirt, and I could see that as plain as day now. I prayed to the gods that he was wearing pants.

"Am I dreaming?"

He searched my face for an answer.

“Roan, just let me—”

“You’re alive. I thought you were dead.”

“Sorry to disappoint—” but then his fingers were in my hair. I couldn’t speak, not while he was so close, while his touch ran over my skin. All I could do was feel, and I felt it all.

The shiver that ran down the whole of me.

The heat in my cheeks.

The prickling pleasure.

And the flame that came to life and raged inside me. I thought it might burn me to the ground; I found I hardly cared.

“Roan,” I whispered, and I didn’t know why. I didn’t know what I was thinking. I wasn’t thinking. I was just heat and want. I reached out, bringing one shaky hand to his chest.

He shuddered, the reaction to my touch wracking his whole body. Then his fingers curled, pressing into my skin with more need than before, and his arms tightened around me, bringing me closer still.

It was madness, and I was mad with it. Hell if I knew what we were doing.

I flattened the palm of my other hand on his stomach, and he hesitated. One hand on his chest, the other on his abdomen. His eyes sharpened, a question there. He wanted to know if I was holding the space between us. He wouldn’t breach it if I didn’t want him to. But I felt unable to communicate a thing, so muddled was my mind. He waited, watching me, his chest heaving for breath under my hand, his heart racing mine. My own desire shook me from my state. I slid my hand around his back, pressed my body to his, and got lost in his arms as he wrapped them around me, folding me into him. In that place, my lips found his. Soft. Gods, his lips were soft. He was soft and slow and so gods-damned gentle that it woke the beast in me.

Forget my running with the wolves.

This kiss—it was the wildest thing I’d ever done.

I pressed harder into him. Everything he did with care and quiet, I did back with fervor and fury. I kissed his lips again and again, and he let me. I pushed back, my body flush against his, and he conceded a step. I drug my fingers down his back. I growled into his mouth. And I felt his smile against my lips.

It shocked the sense into me. I gasped, pulling away just enough to find his eyes. I’d never seen a man look hungrier.

“I was a mess,” he said. “I was a mess with worry. Don’t you ever do that to me again, Fenli Wyn Faasval. I thought you were dead.”

“I…I left a,” but the words weren’t coming. I straightened, pulling my chest away from his though he still clung to my arms and my hands were still over his ribs. He took the opportunity to spin us around, placing himself in front of the door. I shook my head. “I left a note.”

He huffed a laugh.

“Yeah, I got your note. Ess and I went north to make sure you’d gotten to the North Clan safely, but you weren’t there.”