Frustration swelled, and I could feel my body ready for another attack under my wolf’s command. My wolf…whatever the drug was doing, it was responding to the aggression he was usually capable of. I needed to focus on something else.
But what?
Struggling to look through my eyes, I found Kit with them. She looked so terrified.
“Kaiden, please. It’s me.”
I know it’s you. I don’t want this, Kit. I can’t hurt you.
My heart ached, and for a moment, all I could see was just her. The tension in my haunches eased, if only a hair.
Kit. I need to focus on Kit.
It took everything I had to keep the wolf from launching at her, and I zeroed in on that feeling of desperation. The overwhelming need to protect her, to be there for her always, surged through me. It bought me a few precious seconds where I could back up from her.
Only then…will you, at last, be gifted with a fox.
If the situation wasn’t so dire, I might have laughed. A fox. A baby fox is called a kit. Goddamn, Gran. Okay.
Confidence eased through me. I needed to trust in our connection. I needed to give up everything for it if necessary.
And I would.
I was all right with dying for Kit. In fact, I hadn’t given it a second thought. The wolf pushed my body forward, trying to walk even as the gas made me clumsy. Behind that, though, I was realizing that what he’d first said about her was so very true.
Kit was my mate.
I couldn’t hurt her. I had to shrug off this fucking drug, because if I harmed her in any way, I’d never forgive myself. I’d give anything to keep that from happening—my life included.
Fighting with my will again, I tried to force the shift back. I pushed and pushed with that thing that made shifters change their shape, demanding that my wolf back the fuck off.
Get down, you asshole! I won’t let you hurt her. It’s Kit, dammit!
If I would have been in human form, tears may have fallen from my eyes. I’d just gotten Kit back to me after all these years. I’d finally been with her—one singular, perfect night—and it was all going to end?
No, it just couldn’t happen like that. We were supposed to be together. I was supposed to take her home with me, mate her properly, and even start a—
My chest pinched again, and the dizziness coiling through me hit even harder. My wolf made me lunge at Kit, but it was off balance and sloppy. She dodged, and I crashed into the floor, skidding several feet until my back hit the door.
He still wasn’t listening to me, and the antidote wasn’t working fast enough. I could feel it in my veins, battling with the drug, but my wolf was still calling the shots.
No, this isn’t right!
A snarl tore from me, and when the wolf directed me to lunge for her again—Kit’s eyes wide in her face as she stared in terror—I finally clamped down on my will hard enough to freeze him in his tracks.
Stop. You’re going to stop and listen to me. You will not hurt her.
I snarled, growling so low and loud it shook the room. He was fighting against me, and my body felt like it was going to explode from the internal battle raging inside me.
Kill!
No. It’s Kit. Mate, yeah? I will not lose her. I…I love her.
My muscles strained, my pulse going haywire as every nerve in my body coursed with flame. I began to shake, and a horrible ache wormed through me like my sinew and meat were trying to tear themselves from my bones.
I tilted my head back and roared into the air with everything I had. The choice was the first one I was able to make over the wolf, and somehow, I knew it was because I’d accepted her as my mate—at least mentally.
I thought it again, dropping my head to look into her gorgeous sapphire eyes.