Page 32 of Sienna Rossi: Beyond Shattered Trust

At the woman I have spent months pretending I do not want – and I don’t. No matter how much my wolf screams at me otherwise.

Sienna, I murmur softly through the mind-link.

There’s no answer, but I feel her.

Distant, but still there.

I slide one arm beneath her shoulders and lift her carefully, drawing her closer until her body rests against mine, her head tucked beneath my chin. She feels small in my arms, too light, and something fierce and protective tightens in my chest.

“I was careless,” I whisper against her hair. “And you paid for it.”

My hand moves to the mark on her stomach, but this time I do not hesitate. I lay my palm flat against her skin, and instead of bracing for pain, I breathe slowly, calling the burning remnants of lightning to me, feeling my aura surge.

Come on…

I lower my forehead to hers, our noses almost brushing, and I close my eyes.

“I am not fighting this now,” I murmur, though I don’t know if I’m speaking to her or to myself.

And for the first time since I marked her, I let the bond open fully.

I don’t resist it.

I don’t dilute it.

I don’t pretend it is not there.

I let it flood through me, feeling her emotions, a storm just beyond my grasp, her consciousness at the brink of my reach.

Under my palm, the lightning shifts. It reacts like something that has recognised its origin.

I feel her stir within my mind.

“That’s it,” I whisper against her ear.

Then I feel the source of the wild electricity and pull, feeling it travel through my hand and up my arm, my eyes blazing as it intensifies.

She gasps, her breath sucked from her as her body arches, and then she slumps into my arms once again.

The last of the glow fades from her skin, leaving only a faint redness behind, and her heartbeat steadies beneath my hand.

Relief rushes through me so powerfully that I almost don’t register the shift in the air.

Fuck, I did it.

The room grows still.

Too still.

The warmth inside my chest intensifies, and then the world around me seems to dissolve into white light that hurts the eyes.

I am no longer in the infirmary.

I stand in the open sky.

Thunder rolls somewhere far above, but even with the lightning flashing, it’s too bright, and the air tastes of the storm itself.

“Jayce.”