Page 13 of The Botanist and the Beast

The prince lowered his body, bared his teeth, and locked his eyes on Theo.

"Prince Sebastian?" Theo slowly took a step back. Sebastian prowled closer. "If you can understand me, can you give me a sign? You're making me nervous."

The prince growled, flicked his tails, and lunged straight for Theo.

Chapter Eleven

Jaws snapped on to the neck of Theo's tank top and ripped it to shreds as he tore away and bolted into the night. He no longer was worried about finding the gate or being stealthy. All he was focused on was not getting mauled by the prince.

He hopped over roots and ducked under tree branches as he raced through the maze of a forest.Where is he? Did I get away, did—

His thought was cut off when he was hit with so much force the air was knocked right out of his lungs.

A pained cry broke from his lips as he was tackled into a wide-open snowy landscape. The antlers stabbed into his already sliced up arm, making his wounds throb. He was roughly pinned on his back and his blood ran cold as he stared up into a jaw full of razor-sharp teeth.

"Prince Sebastian, please!" he choked out as the prince's claws sunk into his chest. "I'm sorry I ran. I'll go back. Just please stop."

The prince ignored him and lunged forward, forcing his claws in deeper and growling in Theo's face.

A loud groan rang out and the ground under them trembled. Theo worried it was another animal, but as frigid water lightly licked his back, he realized it was much worse.

"Ice. It's ice!" Pure panic coursed through him. "We need to move!"

Theo desperately gripped the prince’s antlers and tried to force him off, but it was no use. His wounded arm was weak, and the prince's strength outmatched him tenfold.

The ice creaked, sending spider web cracks across the surface under his back.

"Please," Theo said through gritted teeth as he desperately tried to push him off. "Will you just listen to me!"

With a loud growl, the prince shot forward and opened his jaws, showing sharp, bloody teeth.

Theo felt the heat of his breath on the front of his neck and squeezed his eyes shut. There was a crash.

And the ice broke.

Chapter Twelve

Theo felt like he had been swallowed whole by winter itself. The cold was razor blades on his skin. All the muscles in his body seized up, locking a scream behind his teeth. Too shocked to even fight the currents, all he could do was sink. His thoughts halted altogether as he stared up through the water's rippling surface growing further away by the second. He saw the outline of the leopard prince, opal eye glinting as he peered through the hole at the surface. But across from the prince was someone else. A figure made of moonlight reached out and put its hand on Sebastian's head.

Theo's mind didn't question what he was seeing as the last of the air in his lungs floated away in a series of bubbles.

Everything went calm. His world went dark. Then he was being yanked upwards.

He crashed onto the frozen surface over the lake. He sputtered, coughed, and shivered as he crawled forward on trembling hands.

There was a groan and he looked over his shoulder and saw the prince, naked and almost in his original form. He still had leopard ears sticking out of his hair, but his antlers were shrinking. One of his five tails lay long behind him on the ice, and the other four were gone. Unlike Theo, he wasn't shivering or affected by the cold at all. He just stared with a bewildered expression.

"Did I...did I attack you?"

"Yeah." Theo let out a sound between a laugh and cough as he spoke. "Yeah, you did. For fuck's sake."

"You were supposed to run. You shouldn't be here. You shouldn't have..." He trailed off as he saw Theo's bleeding arms and covered his face with a trembling hand. "Just go. Please." He nodded to the left. "Walk that way. Keep going. You'll see the gate. I won't follow."

Clutching his bleeding chest, the prince wobbled getting to his feet walked a few steps, and then collapsed with a grunt on the frozen lake.

Theo got up, and still coughing stuck out his hand. "Come on. We can lean on each other on the way back."

The prince shooed him away. "I won't be of use if another creature attacks. It's safer outside the kingdom at night, so you need to hurry."

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