Semua Bab Bound To The Cursed Lycan : Bab 91 - Bab 99

THEODOSA.I looked at her and didn't say a word for a long moment as my words settled in the air.She held my gaze. I couldn’t tell what she was thinking or feeling. Then she said, "Go ahead.""What?" I breathed."Go ahead." It came out the same way she'd said it the first time, like it cost her nothing. "Tell him."I couldn't find a single word to put in front of her."I've known Xahen for a long time,” she said. "If you think a threat about Kane is going to make me stand back and watch you suffer through a full heat alone then you don't know me at all." She held my gaze. "And after everything we've been through in this cabin, I'd like to think you know me a little."I felt the threat come apart in my hands before I could stop it. I'd thrown it out fast because it was the only thing I had, and now it was just sitting there doing nothing."I mean it," I tried again."I know you do." Her voice stayed even. "You're scared. You don't want him knowing your body is doing something you di

XAHEN.The small one who'd been sitting in the corner with her mouth open had recovered first.An hour in, and she was currently hanging off my left arm with both hands, her feet off the ground, swinging herself back and forth with the absolute confidence of someone who had never once considered that this might not be safe.Two boys were chasing each other in circles around me, which meant my shadows had to keep adjusting to avoid knocking them over… which they found hilarious of course. A girl with two lopsided braids had planted herself directly in front of me and was telling me something very important about a bird she'd seen that morning, and she had no intention of stopping until I acknowledged every detail."It had four eyes," she said, holding up four fingers."They all do," I said.She looked at me like I'd just ruined something for her. “No they don’t! Some have three!”“Those are rare.” I whispered nicely.The door opened.Hale stepped inside and stopped.Irritation sparked

THEODOSA.I was still working the towel through my wet hair when I stepped out of my bedroom.The shirt Nala had given me hit mid-thigh and my feet were bare and I was in the middle of trying to detangle a section of curls at the back of my neck when something settled on my chest like something had reached in and grabbed it.I went still.My blood was pulsing in a way that had nothing to do with my heartbeat, and my hackles rose before I'd fully registered what I was feeling. My eyes went straight to the door.Xahen was close.A sound at my window made me turn my head.The gasp came before I could stop it.A single golden eye blinked through the glass of my window. It blinked at me again, focusing on me more with every second that passed.My heart stopped completely.I stood there. That was Xahen's wolf outside my window. I couldn't work out what in the realm he was doing there and my hands were already shaking when the towel hit the floor.The wolf's face disappeared from the glass.

THEODOSA.The first thing I registered was that I couldn't breathe.My chest was compressed and there was heat everywhere, pressing me into the ground from above, and my lungs were working against it absentmindedly.My mouth was dry.The back of my neck was damp. And the smell hit me before anything else did… It was dark, earthy, warm and familiar in a way that made my heart rate pick up before I was even fully awake.I lay there in confusion for a moment, trying to place myself.There was grass under me, and the cold morning air on my legs.And then my heart slammed with one hard lurch, straight up my throat as I remembered last night.I blinked my eyes open fast.The black curls were the first thing I saw.A full, thick mop of them, right there, buried in the center of my chest. I stared down at them without moving. The weight compressing my ribcage resolved itself into a broad back, tattoos I recognized without wanting to, muscles I could count from here. Xahen’s arms were wrap

THEODOSA. Nala settled deeper into the armchair and a small cloud of dust lifted around her. She scrunched her nose at it, looked around at the murky interior of the cabin like she was taking stock of it, and then seemed to decide she had bigger problems. Her fingers found one of the tattoos on her upper arm and traced over it slowly, absentmindedly, while she let out a long breath. "Well." She paused for a moment. "Where do I begin?”I pulled my knees up and waited. I was good at waiting when I needed to be.She shrugged, shifting in the chair. "From what I know, when he got his gift, he used his shadows to barricade this whole territory from the rest of the northern realm." She looked at me. "That's how he protects his people. Against ferals."I held back a shiver at that.Ferals. Monstrous, humanless rabid things. Whatever had once made them wolves was long gone. They lived down in the Unders, in the toxic lower levels of the northern realm where nothing grew and no one with any