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He stared at me for another moment before cracking a smile. “You’re not serious.”

I stared back with a straight face. “I’ve never been more serious.”

The silence that lingered between us terrified me more than anything in the entire damn academy. Wolf also knew my secret, yes, but that wasn’t by choice.

This? This was a risk. My heart pounded as if I had a blade pressed against the skin of my throat.

Lanson was the blade. Each second that passed without his answer pressed it deeper and deeper.

“Say something,” I begged.

“Huntyr,” he started. He turned and stared deep into my eyes. “Hells, this is amazing! If you know how to fight, if you’ve been training, we could actually stand a chance out there when we bond.” Excitement laced every word.

I sighed in relief. “You’re not mad?”

“Mad?” he repeated. His hand came up to caress my cheek. “I knew you were different from the rest. I could feel it. And I understand why you lied about knowing how to fight. This isn’t the safest place to show your true strengths.”

I leaned into his touch, smiling against him. “If you really want to bond with me, you should know the truth.”

He smiled. It was warm and genuine in a way that made my stomach flip. “You’re secret is safe with me, Huntyr. Hells, I can’t believe nobody else knows about this.”

“Well, Wolf knows.”

“Of course he does.” Lanson sighed, pulling his hand away from my cheek. Lanson’s sudden change in attitude forced me to lean after him.

“Not because I told him. He knew it before we arrived here.”

“So you two knew each other? I mean, how close are you? What else aren’t you telling me?”

My head spun, the anger in his voice sending me into a deep downward spiral I wasn’t sure I could escape from.

“Lanson, stop. I promise I’m telling you the truth now! Wolf happened to see me in Midgrave the day before we came here, and I had no intention of ever seeing him again. Where is this coming from?”

He sighed. I fought the urge to reach out and turn his chin to me. “The way he looks at you, the way he protects you, I just thought… I mean, damn, Huntyr. Everyone else in this place is terrified of him. Everyone but you.”

His words grazed the edges of my heart.

Wolf scared me, though I would never admit it. He scared me to my core, scared me in ways I had never felt fear before.

But it wasn’t because I thought he would hurt me. It wasn’t because he was an angel, because he was stronger than anyone else here. It was what he made me feel for him that terrified me the most.

“I’m here withyou,Lanson,” I whispered to him. “And I’ll get through this with you if you still want to bond with me.”

I leaned into him and pressed a kiss to his shoulder.

Hells, I had no intentions of bonding with anyone. I figured I could get my ass kicked alone, and that would be just as painful as sharing the bond with someone else.

But Lanson? He was safe. He was solid. He was strong enough to winmostof his fights during training, and he had done nothing but protect me and care for me the entire time I had been at this academy.

I could do this with him. Lord would never know; he never had to find out.

Lanson answered me with a kiss, gentle and safe.

I kissed him back until I couldn’t feel the pain in my chest, the numbness in my soul, the knives at my fingertips.

Chapter

Eighteen