Total pages in book: 194
Estimated words: 187754 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 939(@200wpm)___ 751(@250wpm)___ 626(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 187754 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 939(@200wpm)___ 751(@250wpm)___ 626(@300wpm)
Khalil does as Thorin says, and the moment he crouches and disappears, Thorin looks down at me like he’d known all along I was awake. Like a coward, I quickly snap my eyes closed.
“You’re a pain in my ass, wolf.” When I just continue to play dead, I think I hear him chuckle, albeit reluctantly. “Sleep, Aurelia. We’ll be home soon.”
I shiver in his arms, and he clutches me tighter.
Thorin lowers me to the ground again when Khalil calls out, and then I feel Khalil’s hands under my shoulders, dragging me across the snow. The last thing I see before I give in to Thorin’s demand is the mouth of the hollowed-out snow mound before I’m pulled inside its dark interior.
“She was screaming and stabbing the ground when I found her,” I hear Seth whisper when I come to again.
The storm seems calmer now, but that could change at any moment.
We’re not out of the woods yet.
“You think something attacked her?” Khalil asks right by my ear. I can hear the frown in his voice and his cold breath skating over my cheek. It must be his chest I’m lying on.
“Maybe…but she was alone.”
Khalil’s chest rises sharply, and then he and Thorin swear.
What? No. What is Seth talking about? There were wolves. Didn’t he see them? What about my injuries?
They don’t know I’m awake, so I keep as still as possible even though I want to check my arm and shoulder where the wolves bit and clawed me and then scream at Seth for making me sound crazy.
But wait—he wasn’t the one who found me.
It was—
“But that’s now our biggest problem,” Seth mumbles before I can finish the thought.
“What?” Thorin and Khalil both ask tightly.
“She kept calling me Tyler.”
It’s silent, and I wonder if they can hear my heart racing. Seth says I’d called him Tyler? No, that’s not right. It’d felt so real. He’d felt so real. Tyler was alive. He’d made it. He’d—
“You mean the kid we found a week ago?” Thorin asks dryly,
I black out again.
AURELIA
It’s morning when I wake up a final time, and I’m warm. Burning is more accurate. I also don’t hear the storm anymore. All I hear is the steady heartbeat beneath my ear. I could write a song to that chaotic rhythm.
“Morning, Sunshine.”
When I lift my head, I see Seth’s face staring down at me. He looks relieved and angry and hurt and…something else I don’t want to name because it’s insane. “It was you,” I gasp as I curl my fingers into his thermal shirt. I feel his hard abs right below my fingers as my lips tremble with that same unnamed emotion. “You came for me.”
Seth’s cold lips brush my forehead. “I’ll always come for you, Sunshine. I told Thanatos that you were mine, and he couldn’t have you. Not without taking me too.”
I’m speechless.
What do you say to a person you’ve only known a few days but who vows without one ounce of irony or whimsy that he’ll follow you into death?
“Stalker.”
Seth smiles at my response, but it’s small and fleeting as he pulls me closer while I look around.
“Where’s Thorin and Khalil? They were here, or did I hallucinate that too?”
“It wasn’t a vision,” he tells me as he rubs my back. “They’re scouting for a way home.”
“You mean they don’t know?” I sit up, but without Seth’s warmth, I’m immediately cold. I force myself to stay put and not use him as a human blanket even though I know he won’t mind. I’m sitting on his lap while he continues to lie on his back, and I have a feeling it’s the only reason he doesn’t yank me back down with him.
“That storm did a lot of damage, Sunshine. It will be tough finding a safe path back, and they won’t risk you until they’re sure.”
I stare at the opening of our little snow cave and the sunlight that makes the packed and hardened snow gleam. Khalil and Thorin built this for me—had risked their own lives to keep me safe and alive until the storm passed. It’s a full minute before I’m brave enough to ask. “Are they mad?”
“Livid, baby.” Seth thinks about it and then says, “Actually, I think we’re both in the doghouse. It’ll be fine. We just need to get you home, and then you can start making it up to us.”
My stomach sinks while pussy tightens at the thought of it—two warring reactions that I’m careful not to give myself away.
“Maybe tie you to the bed so this doesn’t happen again,” Seth muses.
I chuckle nervously. “I can’t tell if you’re joking or not.”
“I’m not.”
“Oh.”
“If it makes you feel better, they’ll probably tie me up too, so at least we can keep each other company.”
“Why?” When he doesn’t answer, I take a stab in the dark. “Because you came after me?”