Page 71 of Bound By Roses

Quinn sucks in a quick breath and I know it’s because he isn’t used to people going out of their way for him. “I’m still going to spend my nights as a wolf.”

I take his hand in mine. “I’m sorry. I know that’s the last thing you want.” Even if it’s the safest option.

He glances to the now orange sky as if it were an hourglass telling him that his time as a human is almost up. “There’s something I need to ask you. It’s not going to take very long for me to feel trapped. Last night was hard, even without us fighting. Even if I have control over the wolf, having no choice about spending my nights in that form is going to fuck me up. It might take longer because you’re with me, but it’s going to happen.”

I didn’t hear a question in that. “Tell me what you need.”

“I know sleeping in that tower makes you feel safer, and I swear to you that I had no problem with it. But I can’t be in there if I’m a wolf. I spent too many years in my tower in Rosewood, hiding from the monster inside me. I don’t want to feel like that again.”

I reach up to cup his cheek and he leans into my palm. When I stare into his eyes, I see the scared boy I know he’s only ever dared show me. Not the killer his father turned him into, nor the king he tries to be for his people. When I stare into those amber eyes, the truest version of Quinn stares back. “You don’t have to.”

“I need to be outside. I can’t have any kind of wall around me, but if you want to stay in the tower—”

I stand up on my toes and press my lips against his, forcing an end to that sentence before he can even suggest such a thing.‘I’m staying with you.’

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

QUINN

The wraiths are screaming and I’m running.

I’m running through a forest so dark that even in this form, my eyes are struggling to see. I was supposed to be safe as a wolf. Safe from the twisted fate, seeking to rip me away from Abby.

I skid to a stop because she isn’t here. Where is she? She said she’d stay with me.

A wraith screams again, closer this time. The cries rattle inside my mind, driving me to madness. If I had hands in this form, I’d probably be pulling my hair out.

I have to make it stop.

I have to find Abby.

I feel for her, and there’s nothing. No bond, no tether connecting us.

I’m alone.

She’s gone.

The wraiths are screaming.

My eyes fly open and for only a moment my footfalls match the panicked beat of my heart, but then I trip over a root and tumble down a small hill into a thicket of leaves and branches.

It was a nightmare, butthisisn’t.

Not the forest surrounding me. Not the ache in my legs and the burn in my lungs from a run I hadn’t realized I was on. The last time I woke up like this…

No.

No, I didn’t lose control. My fur isn’t stained with the sickening stench of blood and there’s no metallic tang coating my tongue.

I reach for the bond again, and this time I feel her. There’s a peacefulness to Abby that I only ever feel while she’s asleep, so whatever happened didn’t wake her. I don’t know where I am, but she calls to me. Even while she dreams of things that I hope are better than my nightmares, she can lead me back to her.

I move to follow, but movement to my left catches my eye and I freeze in place. I tilt my head back and sniff at the air, but there’s nothing. My eyes must be playing tricks on me, because if it was an animal, I would have smelled it.

And then I hear it.

The wail was far too close, but I can’t tell which direction it came from. I spin in a tight circle, searching for any sign of the creature that can smell the promise of death on me. The creature that yearns to devour my soul and take me away from this world—from Abby—forever.

And then I see it.

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