Page 106 of An Empress of Earth & Darkness

Artem shook his head. “Then that is foolish of them to not see all the things that you are. You are a powerful wolf and an even more powerful woman.” His thumb ran across her jaw just as the heat of his body caressed around her. She wanted to pull away, she knew she should, but something rooted her to where she stood. “Doesn’t that make you our greatest weapon? If the men in the clans cannot see what you are, doesn’t that make you even more dangerous?”

Her bones froze at his words, and her heart sped up.

“Because that’s what I see when I look at you—power,” he continued. “Breighly, I don’t see you as a girl who is chasing a dream to fight for a cause. I see a woman who is earning respect for every little girl who even dares to dream big in the first place. A woman who isn’t scared to get her hands dirty or curse or throw a punch. By the Gods, you put all of us fucking hunters in our places daily.” His hand waved around them. “But we can still have…this. Us being together doesn’t change anything for you. I am drawn to you regardless of what the factions say. And I can’t ignore that. I have been unable to ignore you since that first moment in La Luna—or maybe it was when you threw an axe at my head. Who knows?” He grinned, a little less confident than usual.

It took her a long moment to digest his words, and the tingle in her heart shocked her. Maybe he was right; maybe she was pushing him away not because of what everyone else thought, but because of who she was. But that was just it. She wasn’t a witch from a respectable family who could give his clan elemental magic or stability. He would be married to someone like Sybil or Emara. Gods, he could have anyone he wanted because he was the chief commander’s son. And she was the alpha’s daughter; no doubt the Gods had her mate already chosen for her.

Her blood boiled at the thought of not being able to make the decision for herself. Her heart rebelled against it all, and her stomach lurched.

She shook her head and looked at her fingernails, trying to appear as unrattled as she could even though her heart was pumping so fast she was dizzy. “It doesn’t matter.” She finally met his gaze, and it was strong and unfaltering on her face. “It can’t happen between us. Even if Emara said she was okay with both her guards…you know. We can be nothing more. You are a hunter and I, a wolf. Our paths are different—too different. I will find a mate, and that wouldn’t be fair to you. So what is the point in all of this?”

Something lingered on his face for a moment before a little emptiness echoed in his eyes. He opened his mouth to speak, but he frowned in contemplation before he let the words float through the air between them. “Okay, I respect that.” He paused, and a heavy sigh came from his chest. “My heart may be wounded, but I respect that.”

A magnetic pull tugged at her heart like she had just done something wrong. It was like the tides of fate threatened to wash away what she had laid out in the world to replace it with something else. Her breath caught, and a staggering light flashed above the trees. Was it a shooting star?

When she brought her gaze back down to him, the energy changed between them. Breighly stumbled back, almost choking on what consumed her heart. It was unspoken and rare. Was it pain? Was it her way of acknowledging that this thing between them was over? She had never felt like this before. It was consuming her full being.

A swirling wind brought in his last words. My heart may be wounded, but I respect that.

She swallowed down the emotion in her throat as she clutched the tunic together tightly. “Hunters are not supposed to have hearts.”

The look on his face was peculiar, as if he had felt a shift in their energy too. He took a step back, his eyes wide and his jaw strained. She could see the muscles in his shoulders tense, and his hands clenched into fists, but she wasn’t sure if it was hurt or if he was restraining himself from doing something he shouldn’t. Did he want to battle her? Kiss her? Shout at her? Hate her?

The inability to read him caused her heart to stammer, and it was getting harder for her to breathe.

He glanced at the stars before he spoke. “You and I both know that’s not true. Hunters do have hearts.”

Her stomach churned as she looked at him. Something wasn’t right. Something between them—

He dropped his shoulders, and his body finally relaxed. “What I do know is that wolves have the biggest hearts in any of the factions even though they try to hide them. So I know that when you do find the mate that you choose for yourself, they are going to be so extremely lucky.”

That you choose for yourself.

Every particle of air was sucked from Breighly’s chest to form a barrier around her own heart, protecting her from the pain that rattled her soul. Why did her heart feel like it was being ripped from her chest? Only moments ago, she had told this warrior that she had no feelings for him whatsoever, and now they were swirling in her heart.

“Good night, Bry,” he said in a soft whisper.

As Artem turned to leave, Breighly opened her mouth to call his name, to stop him from leaving, but she could make no sound. The moonlight hit his back, causing her legs to almost buckle beneath her.

No.

It couldn’t be.

Why hadn’t she never noticed it before?

There, tattooed in black, was a wolf, an alpha of the pack. It faded into the darkness of the forest with Artem Stryker as he left her.

Gideon was glad that his mother had stayed behind at the campsite with Lorta and Kaydence. It wasn’t the most comfortable journey to the Temple of the Gods when the newest joke of the clan was that his brother and Emara had destroyed a tent consummating their marriage. And to top off his splendid situation, Sybil was ignoring him now too.

He had witnessed the disappointment in her eyes as she stood in the clearing with her rugs, ready to go stargazing. It had shifted something in him that was confusing and brutal. How Sybil had been so far off about his relationship with the Empress of Air had frustrated him a bit too, but he knew it was his fault for not being clear.

Yes, it was complicated, and he couldn’t just switch off how he once felt. He still cared for Emara. But his heart had eased up on the pain he had once felt at the sight of her and his passion for her. He knew it wasn’t right; Emara was not his to love. And he was okay with that, because somewhere down the line, his heart had taken a beat for another, one with hair that could rival a sunset and eyes of the truest green.

But for whatever Gods-awful reason, he couldn’t

convey that to her last night.

The Gods really did hate him.

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