Page 74

Sulien stood just beyond them, his broad back half-turned, as if he'd been pacing. He sensed her before she reached him in the way packmates did, and he turned sharply.

Fae's gaze slid past him without conscious thought.

Blaidd was not here.

She did her best not to feel the disappointment. This is going to be easier than I thought, she told herself grimly, fingers curling in the pocket of her yukata. Blaidd could not have made his contempt clearer than by sending someone else to fetch her.

Her fingertips brushed the silk pouch hidden there—the Kuri-Mamori she had shoved into her pocket at the last moment. Maybe severance was the answer after all. Why was she still hesitating?

Sulien's impassive face relaxed into a relieved smile, and he stepped forward instinctively, as if to pull her into a familiar embrace…and suddenly seemed to catch himself.

The sting of that restraint cut deeper than she expected. Sulien had always been the one she trusted when she was lost and alone in the middle of the pack. He had been her keeper of secrets, but no longer it seemed.

Fae's greeting cooled on her lips. "What are you doing here?"

For a heartbeat, Sulien only stared at her before understanding dawned. "You think he didn't come for you," he said softly.

Her nails dug into the soft flesh of her palm, but she didn't confirm or deny.

"He is here," Sulien continued. "Just beyond the curve. He's…composing himself."

Sulien's voice lowered, the forge's heat and sound falling away as if the world itself leaned closer. "His wolf is beginning to separate from him." He nodded when her eyes rounded with shock. "Yes, the first weeks of going feral. Instinct pulls ahead of reason and control. But he is not beyond saving"

The feeling of suffocation seized Fae again.

"If he senses any males near his lifemate," Sulien went on, gaze sliding toward Kenji, "he may attack. I don't dare come close."

Kenji did not retreat. He simply held his ground while keeping a small distance from her.

The sound that vibrated through the air made the hair stand up on the nape of her neck.

Low and guttural. Not quite a growl, more a promise dragged from deep in the chest.

It rolled out from beyond the bend in the path seconds before Blaidd stepped into view.

"Move away from her."

The words were torn loose on a snarl.

He had lost weight, there was no mistaking it. It was the brutal leanness of a man pushed past endurance carved into the sharp lines along his frame. And yet he was still massive, taller than Sulien, who himself stood head and shoulders above Fae.

Blaidd filled the space, seeming to suck the air from the space. Aiko's hand trembled in her palm as he closed the distance. His axes fell to the wayside.

His hair was brutally shorn close to the scalp, as if anything unnecessary had been stripped away. The familiar tattoos still marked his arms—ancient lines etched into skin stretched over dense, coiled muscle—but they looked darker now, angrier somehow. A healing wound cut across his cheek, fresh violence laid over an old face.

His body was all hard planes and restrained fury. Broad shoulders, arms thick with muscle earned in battle and bloodshed. But it was his face, so different from the man she knew.

Fae had seen his eyes countless times in the portrait. Looked into him when he could not help but lose control. But nothing had prepared her for this.

They burned the colour of cognac—deep, luminous and beautiful—with a spill of scarlet still staining the edges. Now they shone with possession…and hope.

Her wolf stayed silent in her chest now, apathetic.

Blaidd took another step forward.

Sulien shifted, just barely—enough to block without challenging.

"Brother," he warned. "Remember what we talked about."