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Berserkers, especially full-blooded berserkers—which I am not—are rare nowadays, but the stories of their matehood arelegendary. They were known for being fiercely, dangerously protective of their mates, their families—
basically anyone or anything they proclaimed as theirs. Hence a lot of the fighting and warring that went on. They just couldn’t leave shit alone.
Is that why Theo, small, fragile Theo, who Istillhaven’t seen breathe, is triggering this violentneedin me? Or is it just the instinctive urge to protect something,someonefragile?
Despite my lizard brain screeching to claim Theo, my more rational brain knows this is insane. Dating hasn’t even been on my radar lately, let alone taking amate.
I don’t have the time. The Black Stump Tavern takes up my entire life. When I’m not crashing through the Woods on hair-brained rescue missions with my friends, that is.
Well, too fucking bad, we’re keeping him,that voice spits back at me. I completely ignore the hard lump that forms in my throat when I consider my internal conflict may all be for naught. Theo may not even wish tobekept. He’s not even conscious yet.
The smell of fire rouses me from my contemplation of Theo’s still body and my mental spiral.
I glance up and finally see my friends running towards us, violent green flames licking at their heels as they dash for their lives across the grassy field between us and the blazing inferno.
I snatch Theo back into my arms, scurrying backwards—away from the fire or my friends I am not sure—but a final explosion rocks the earth, knocking them off their feet, and we scramble as far into the Woods as we can until we all collapse in safety.
It’s gone. All of it. The gardens, the cottage, all engulfed in the blaze. Any doomed creature still trapped inside is completely swallowed in the sacred fire purifying the land, black smoke billowing into the sky.
“Is it over?” Seff is human now, having changed at some point in his escape. Naked and dirty, bloody and bruised, he curls hislarge body around Edith. She strokes his hair, holding him tight. Caelan and Tor are slumped together, wrapped in each other for comfort.
“Yeah, hun, it’s over. She’s gone now.”
I look down at Theo still nestled in my arms, and finally see the faintest movement in his chest, the warmth of his delicate breath making my soul soar. And something tickles my intuition, a horribly beautiful knowledge that for me, this may only be the beginning.
Theo
Well. I’m free.
Apparently.
It’s over.
I lean my forehead against the heavy wooden door, so similar but a world apart from the door that kept me captive for weeks, and inhale a deep breath. Hold it for one count. Two. Three. Four.
Breathe out.
Then in again.
It’s an old trick, but it doesn’t work. I squeeze my eyes shut against the violentfeelingboiling up inside of me, threatening to burst out of me like a volcano.
It is too much, too many emotions fighting a savage battle inside, and I don’t know what to feel first. A sob escapes the breath I’m holding, and I reign it all back in.
Another breath.
It had been easier before, surrounded by my rescuers -my friends?- for days. Even during our arrival here at the BlackStump Tavern, mobbed by patrons celebrating our return. I could keep control, hold it together…
Maybe I should call Seldon back, the pretty, flamboyant server who came and showed me to my room. He seemed kind. Maybe he could…
Do nothing.
Because there is nothing to be done.
My rescuers—my brother and his mate Caelan, the wild witch Edith, goofball wolf shifter Seff—have all gone off to their own rooms for an extremely well deserved rest.
Roan is probably here too.
Of course he is.
