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No, this one is different.

I haven’t let him go into a full, raging berserk of destruction since the War of the Witch. When I rampaged across Europe like a plague…

In fact, most of my barbaric rampage was blamed on a plague.

Holding my very soul in my arms, I whisper, “I’ll protect you with all that I have in me.”

Pushing tentatively on the bond, I try to calm her raging emotions. But I dare not push too hard.

Nor do I dare let her see the real me.

She would truly want to run then.

I walk us quickly to the door, and she calms enough that she’s no longer screaming madly in my ear.

But her delicate human body trembles against me.

She’s so fragile right now. So very fragile that I can’t help but fear I’ll accidentally crush her in my arms.

Unable to move even one hand from her, I lift my foot and open the door with a solid kick.

The door flies off the hinges and skids across the pavement right as a large black SUV skids to a stop in front of the house.

I don’t hear a heartbeat or smell the sweet perfume of blood pumping through a living being’s blood, beside my beloved’s.

All I can smell is an acrid stench of vileness that I must of ran through at some point.

Mentally shrugging to myself, I say, “These men are my brothers. Mother should be at our safe house. She’ll want to meet you as soon as possible. The way humans consider it, she’s not really my mother, though. She didn’t give birth to me or turn me. She’s Asher’s bonded.”

I have no clue why I’m running at the mouth. It’s not like it means much to her. But she’s trembling in my arms, and I want her to feel safe.

Andrei hops out of the back of the car and holds the door open for us.

“I will protect you from the Order,” I vow. “But we have to get away from here quickly.”

Carrying her to the SUV, I nod to Andrei, and notice Maddox is in the front with Caden.

Thank the gods they didn’t allow that doofus Ambrose to come. The last thing I need is him freaking her out even more.

“No, no, no,” she murmurs over and over.

Quietly humming to her, I slide my body into the backseat. Andrei, my coven brother, shuts the door quickly behind us and races back to his side of the car in a blink of the eye.

Hopping in, he taps the back of Caden’s seat. “Move it. Father wants us home as soon as possible.”

The SUV peels out and we’re pushed back into our seat.

By luck, my soulmarked is forced deeper into my arms.

Her plush body feels right in my embrace. Even if she has a bit of the stench I was smelling earlier.

Racing out of the distressed landscape of dilapidated homes, boarded-up corner stores, and stop signs with bullet holes punched through them, I stare into the dark night surrounding the car and feel true worry for the first time in centuries.

Worry.

Is it my own or hers?

I gently push against the bond we both share, but I’m still hesitant to push too hard.