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brIX

I stared down at the woman before me, my mate, the miracle of a being only growing more wondrous with every moment that revealed yet another of her secrets.

An empath.

It shouldn’t have been possible. They were said to be extinct. The last known empath had been killed a generation ago, her gift bled dry, her life along with it.

Emotions warred within me—fear, wonder, anger, amazement—and the unfamiliar sensations had my wolf snarling.

Wren frantically shook her head. “I’m not. Why would you say that?”

My eyes narrowed. “You are. I felt something the first time you touched me in my wolf form and couldn’t identify it. But this time? I felt you easing the darkness. You bled it out of me.”

All color drained from Wren’s face as panic took root. “You’re mistaken. I?—”

I grabbed her wrist and pulled her to me as I struggled to keep my hold on her gentle. “You’re my mate . Do you honestly think I would betray you by telling this secret to the world?”

So many pieces slid into place. All the ways Wren was guarded. Her headaches. Her reaction when emotions ran high.

“Brix,” she whispered.

“Trust me,” I begged. It was the ultimate request. I knew I had no right to that gift, but I asked for it anyway. “Trust me to protect you in every way I can.”

A little of the fear slid out of Wren’s expression, her face softening as she looked up at me. “If anyone finds out…”

“I know.” I pulled her against me and wrapped her in my arms as if I could shield her from everything that could possibly come her way.

She shuddered against me but burrowed in. The action was more of a gift than she’d ever know.

My fingers tangled in her hair, stroking the same way she had with my fur. “When did you know?”

Wren was quiet for a moment before speaking. “I’m not sure. I’ve just known for as far back as I can remember. My mom said she could feel it even when I was a baby. She had to learn to shield her emotions from me because I’d often try to heal her when she was in distress.”

I pulled back and brushed the hair away from her face. “She could shield?”

Wren nodded. “Through her caster magic. She tried to shield me, too, so no one would find out, but I burned through the spells too quickly. That’s when she knew she had to run. Because she understood what my father would do if he found out.”

A low growl tore from my throat. If Bastian knew what his daughter was, he would’ve used every last ounce of her power. People paid top dollar for healings. And with how rare empaths and their emotional healings were, they would’ve paid a fortune. “She hid you.”

“We moved around a ton. Never stayed in one place for more than a few months. As I got older, she taught me how to shield myself—both my empath gifts and my shifter nature. With my unique eyes, I had to learn to conceal every other piece of myself if we had any hope of staying hidden.”

But they hadn’t stayed hidden forever. Ender had shared some of what he’d seen while in Wren’s mind, including the fact that Bastian had killed her mother when she was quite young.

“How did he find you?” I asked.

Wren let out a long breath, grief sweeping through her beautiful turquoise eyes. “I still don’t know. He has sources everywhere. Maybe my scent shields slipped at some point, and a supernatural caught my smell. Maybe a human saw a photo of me and put two and two together.”

The grief in her expression transformed into anger, hot pulses of it washing over her beautiful face. “He liked me to be in the dark. To never know how he got to us or how he knew certain things. I’m fairly confident someone who wields dark magic is on his payroll.”

I gnashed my back teeth as I struggled to maintain my composure. Bastian had tortured Wren in so many ways outside of the physical. And the emotional wounds might be the worst.

My lips skimmed her forehead. “I’m so sorry, Little Warrior. So damn sorry.”

The nickname King had bestowed on her was more accurate than he could know. Wren was a fighter through and through. Battling to make her way out of hell and warring to get to us, where she was always meant to be.

“I’m just so tired,” she whispered. “Tired of running. Fighting. I just want it to be done.”

I heard the defeat in her voice and understood it. She’d been fighting for her entire life. Never free to simply…be. She deserved that freedom, a life without worry or fear. And I would do anything to give it to her.

“Wren.” My thumb traced her jawline. “Why do you think the universe brought you to us?”

She looked up at me, her brows pulling together.

“So you can rest. Let us fight for you. Let us give you strength. None of us is as powerful alone as we are together.”

Wren’s eyes glistened, her unshed tears glittering in the fading light of the day. “Brix.”

She needed more than my words. She needed my actions.

I let my hands fall from her face and took a step back before dropping to my knee and dipping my head to look at the ground. “Wren. Little Warrior. Mate. I swear my devotion to you and only you. Where you lead, I will follow. What you need, I will provide. My life is yours to do with as you will.”