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Wolf stood still for a second before approaching me. He took the few steps to my spot beneath the tree and knelt in front of me, inches from touching my knees. I would’ve flinched away if I had an ounce of extra energy to give.

“What are you doing?” I whispered.

He leaned forward, ensuring I had nowhere to look but him. “I would never feed from you, Huntyr. You have to believe that. There is no craving that would make me betray that. There is no amount of hunger that would force me to turn on you. I would die first, I swear by the goddess.”

This was Wolf—the arrogant, prickly, dangerous, deadly angel that made everyone turn the other way. Wolf was dark and alluring and tempting, but this?

This was a plea. This was raw. Wolf begged me to believe him.

“Is it true what they taught us in Moira? You still have a soul?”

Wolf cracked the fraction of a smile. “What do you think?”

WhatdidI think? “I thought I knew you,” I whispered. “I thought you were a fallen angel. I thought you wanted to protect me.”

He leaned closer. The heat of his breath had me leaning forward, too. “And now?”

I closed my eyes but didn’t back away. “I think you hurt me. And I never thought you, of all people, would be capable of that.”

When I finally opened my eyes, I saw Wolf staring at me, but it wasn’t the same soft Wolf that had been there moments before. His walls had been rebuilt, the mask of arrogance and cold replacing whatever emotion had been there before.

My words hurt him.Good. They should hurt him.He hurt me ten fucking times over.

Wolf retreated, returning to finish the trap he had been working on setting. I didn’t say another word. I didn’t apologize, didn’t backtrack.

It was the truth.

I leaned my head back on the tree bark and let my eyes flutter shut again. Everything hurt. The numbness in my body had morphed to a constant prickling from the freezing environment. Sleep wouldn’t even be possible if it weren’t for the sheer exhaustion washing over me.

I took a few long breaths and let the cold take over.

Iwasn’t cold when I woke up. Not in the slightest. I nuzzled deeper into the soft warmth beside me, not wanting to fully wake up.

Until I realized what—who—I nuzzled against.

I sat up with a gasp, pushing off Wolf’s solid chest and sliding away from him.

He grunted and opened his eyes. “What is it?” he rasped with exhaustion.

“Nothing,” I answered, running my hands through my hair. The sun had just risen; there was no way we had slept more than one hour. “I just—I didn’t know—”

“Come back here,” he demanded, re-closing his eyes and letting his head fall back on the forest ground.

I froze. “What?”

“It’s freezing, and you’re being stubborn. You need more sleep. Get back over here, Huntress.”

Perhaps Wolf was far too delirious to realize just what he was asking.

“We’ve shared a bed before,” he said, reading my thoughts.

“That was different,” I replied. “I didn’t know you were a bloodsucker then.”

“I didn’t sink my teeth into your veins then, and I certainly won’t now. Come. Here.”

Fuck.The utter demand in his words could not be denied, even by me. I was too tired to fight it, too cold now to make sense of how I felt.

So I moved closer to him and laid my head on his chest, wrapping my arms around his torso. He lifted the edge of his jacket and slipped my hand beneath, in between his shirt and the warmed leather from his body heat.