I collapse on top of her, and she rolls us over. I can feel her climbing over me, her eyes searching for the wounds she dealt.
Blood is trickling down my skin, and I try to tell her to wait.
To give it some time, and eventually, they will heal.
But instead, she presses her tongue to each wound. Licking them until they heal.
Then she collapses to me, quaking and whimpering as her face falls into the crook of my neck.
But she isn’t cold.
Instead, she’s shivering with the strength of our bond.
A bond that cannot ever be broken.
Chapter 30
~ Clarissa
Alaska. The place I never thought I’d find myself traveling to again. But here I am, sitting in Theo’s small apartment by the fire. Toshi is perched on the windowsill staring out over the small Alaskan town while Sebastian sits behind me. His legs are spread in a chair, his head propped up in his hand. And Theo is sitting next to me. His hand on my knee. Our bodies connecting as he tries to give me the one thing he can to settle my mind.
There are no more answers. Only the prophecy and some misled notion that I’m some pregnant woman that needs to be protected. I can feel the possessiveness in the room. It’s thick and loud, and it won’t stop beating down on my ears. It has been like this ever since we boarded the plane and returned from Russia. Since we dropped into the Alaskan airport and headed straight for Theo’s place.
His thumb is massaging my skin as the world melts around me.
I can hear the whispers. I can feel the energy around me changing. Sebastian is completely against the idea of me using Theo to speak with Kyle, but I have to. I need to. It’s the only thing I have left. I’m being hunted by the Council, and everyone is on edge about an impending war I still don’t think is coming.
It’s all so cryptic and unusual. Prophecies aren’t a thing.
Then again, Primals weren’t a thing until I discovered myself to be like them.
“Where is he?” I ask.
“I’m trying,” Theo says. “Sometimes it can take some time. Be patient.”
“Please, Kyle. Let me hear you. Let me know you’re okay.”
That’s really my issue. I can cover it up with whatever I want to. Whatever makes it easier to palette. But the truth of all this is, I don’t know if Kyle’s okay. I don’t know if there’s a place for him in another life that makes him happy. I don’t know if he’s smiling and laughing the way he deserves.
The last time I saw him, he was removed of most of his skin and unrecognizable to my eyes.
“Kyle, I know you can hear me,” Theo says. “Talk to Clarissa. She needs you now more than ever.”
“It won’t give you closure.”
I whip my head around to Sebastian and growl at him.
“I don’t care what you think, Sebastian. I need this.”
“Which is why I’m allowing it.”
“You don’t allow anything. You don’t control me.”
I watch his nostrils flare as he adjusts himself in the chair.
Spreading his legs further, like somehow showing me the imprint of his groin will sway my mind.
And I hate to admit it, but I do feel myself weakening around him.