Total pages in book: 222
Estimated words: 213974 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1070(@200wpm)___ 856(@250wpm)___ 713(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 213974 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1070(@200wpm)___ 856(@250wpm)___ 713(@300wpm)
I swallowed, pressing my hands flat to his chest. “I’ve heard stories about something like this. People who can walk in each other’s dreams.”
“Mates of the heart,” he surmised, and I felt a twinge deep in my chest.
“I…I’ve heard the legends of such.” I thought of my parents. “But that can’t be it,” I said before he could. “Then how is it possible?”
An emotion flickered across his face—too fast for me to decipher. “It could be because we’ve shared blood. That could be common among those who’ve experienced what we did.”
I started to ask how he couldn’t be sure, but who could he have asked? He’d still been young when Kolis killed his father, and while I thought there had been some sort of friendship between Ash and Attes, they had kept some distance between them.
“Or it’s the embers,” Ash added as his thumbs moved in small circles along my ribs. “In particular, the one my father took from me and put in your bloodline. That could be what allowed us to connect in our dreams.”
The thing was, no one knew if that was the case or not. Well, maybe the Arae did, but what happened with the embers had never been done before. It made sense. And it also made me wonder about other ways it may have formed a connection between us. Between the blood we’d shared and this…
Tension crept into my muscles as it finally occurred to me that this was one of the reasons Ash knew something had happened when I was held captive. How I’d reacted when he said he knew Kolis had hurt me. That was how he’d known what Kyn and Kolis told him while he was imprisoned couldn’t all be lies. My chest twisted as I looked up. The softness and teasing were completely gone from Ash’s features as he watched me.
Shit.
I needed to pull it together, and not thinking about all of that would be the first and most important step in doing so.
Forcing my thoughts elsewhere, I thought of my lake. And Ash, watching over me. “Can I ask you something else?”
“Of course.”
I smiled. “Why didn’t you tell me you could shift into a wolf?”
Thick lashes lowered, shielding his gaze. “I didn’t know if it would…disturb you.”
“Why would you think that?”
He shrugged one shoulder and cleared his throat. When his lashes lifted, the vulnerability in his expression struck me. “Most would be at least unsettled by another’s ability to change into a beast.”
“Some would probably be a little freaked out by it, but I’m not most people.”
“No,” he murmured. “You are not.”
“And a wolf is not a beast. A dakkai? Yes. That’s a beast to me.” I traced the line of his collarbone. “A wolf is beautiful.” My gaze met his. “You are beautiful in that form.”
“Thank you.”
I tapped my fingers on his skin. “I find all your forms beautiful. This one. The wolf. When you go full Primal.”
“Full Primal?”
I nodded, dragging my lower lip between my teeth. “When your skin resembles shadowstone, and you do that smoky, shadow thing.”
Eather intensified, churning wildly in his eyes. “I think I know exactly which part of the full Primal form you find so…beautiful.”
My cheeks flushed as my mind immediately flashed to the night Ash had been drawn to me as I pleasured myself. Those smoky tendrils of shadow energy he controlled were definitely beautiful. And wicked. And highly arousing. My stomach clenched in the most delicious way, just remembering that night.
Gods, I really couldn’t think of that right now, even if I was still so damn relieved and thrilled that I could. That I could feel desire. But other things needed to be handled. Important things that did not involve those scandalous wisps of eather or any of our body parts.
I squared my shoulders. “We probably need to get going.”
“Yeah.” He tipped his head back. “But you’ll need clothing to do so.”
Glancing around the cavern, I raised a brow. “I think we’re out of luck when it comes to that.”
“I’ll retrieve some for you,” he said, reminding me that he was so much younger than the other Primals and couldn’t manifest clothing like Attes could. “It’ll take a few minutes, if that. Enjoy a little more time here.”
That meant he would shadowstep. He was going to leave. My stomach pitched, and gods, I couldn’t stop the burst of panic. “I can put the gown back on.”
“I don’t ever want to see you in that again.” The eather whipped across his eyes. “And it has nothing to do with the blood all over it. That is the only part of the gown I like.”
“Because it’s Kolis’s blood?” I guessed.
He nodded.
“Savage,” I murmured, my fingers pressing into his chest. “What if something happens to you? What if you don’t come back, and I’m stuck here? Don’t get me wrong, it’s beautiful, but I don’t think I can eat lilacs or—”