I hear Malix tell him something in a low voice, but I block out their conversation and draw back just enough to press my forehead to Frost’s. His soft, pale blond hair tickles my face, forming a curtain between us and the landscape around us.
“Hey,” I say softly, pressing my body against his. It’s an incredibly intimate embrace, not just because we’re hugging, but because we’re naked. Fortunately, I think it’s that very thing that allows me to drag his attention away from Cormac. So much of our skin is pressed together that I can feel him everywhere, and I know he can feel me too. “Everything’s okay. Stay with me.”
Frost’s icy blue eyes latch on to mine, and a shudder wracks his body. “I… can’t.”
I pull my hands up to his face and anchor him against me, gently brushing my thumbs over his cheeks. “Yes you can. Just breathe.”
His eyes are stormy and barely focused. His shadows are waving madly now, flickering over his skin in anger. I see the movement out of the corner of my eyes but try not to focus on it. I try not to think about how close he is to losing it.
Because if I can’t get a handle on his emotions, Felicity definitely isn’t going to ally with us. Not after he slaughters her people.
“Close your eyes,” I murmur. “Listen to my voice. Breathe me in. Focus on me.”
Frost nods, breathing hard. His hands shoot up to my shoulders, and he clutches me like I’m the only life raft on a stormy sea. Slowly, he gets control of his breaths. I speak to him under my voice, guiding him back, promising him that no other man will ever touch me except him and his brothers.
All the words I’m saying are meant to calm Frost, but I realize as I speak that I truly do mean it. I can’t imagine another man touching me. I can’t imagine ever wanting that. Even if the four of us can never fully repair the bond that was shattered, there will never be anyone else for me.
Just them. Only them.
I tell Frost that too, and eventually, my whispered reassurances seem to work, at least a little. His shadows grow somewhat calm again. They’re still moving faster than I would like, but at least it’s progress.
Finally, his palm drifts up to my face, and he sags against me like he’s just finished the biggest battle of his life. And maybe he has. I don’t know what’s going on inside him. None of us know. I manage to catch him just in time, so he doesn’t slump right down to the rocky ground.
His dead weight, however, is just a bit too heavy for me. I manage to hold him against my body as I go down to my knees, the impact reverberating through my joints and into my damn teeth.
It’s at this very inopportune moment that a dry female voice speaks up from behind me.
“Well, well, well. It looks like my husband isn’t taking very good care of his pets, now is he?”