Page 128 of Wanted

My protector.

I don’t know how long I pet it, feeling completely safe for the first time in my life, when I sense a sudden shift in the atmosphere.

My mark doesn’t throb or pulse. It pounds, sending waves resonating up and down my skin.

Opening my eyes, I look up to see Raphael standing in front of us. Staring at us with a befuddled expression.

Despite his expression, every fiber of my being rejoices at seeing him alive and well.

“Raphael? Is it really you?”

He slowly nods his head and says gently, “We need to leave, Alena. You’re safe now. Fred and I made sure of it.”

I frown, confused. “Fred?”

He points at the monstrous head laying in my lap. “That’s the name I gave my berserker.”

I glance down at the head, whose golden eyes are peering up at me, then back at Raphael. “You named him Fred? Seriously? That’s the best you could come up with?”

As if he’s agreeing with me, Fred purrs a deep rumble and nuzzles against my stomach.

Raphael sighs and reaches his arm out to me. “Yes. That’s the best I could come up with. It seemed ironically fitting at the time.”

I stare at his hand for a moment then look away.

Continuing to stroke Fred’s head, I state, “I don’t want to leave. I like it here.”

Raphael doesn’t say anything for a few seconds, but I can somehow sense he’s perplexed and impatient, like they’re my own emotions.

“You can’t stay here, my love,” he says, his tone remaining gentle. “You must return to your own body.”

I jerk my eyes back to Raphael’s face. “My own body? What do you mean?”

Raphael’s eyes gleam, and though he wants me to leave, desperately wants me to leave, he’s also trying to suppress his delightover this situation as he explains, “You’re inside me.”

“What?” I shake my head, unable to wrap my mind around it. “How am Iinsideyou?”

He steps closer, thrusting his hand out to me. “I used the bond to pull you into me.”

That… makes absolutely no sense to me.

“Come,” he coaxes. “I’ll explain it all later.”

I’d refuse again, but I can’t block out his growing urgency. He’s worried about something but doesn’t want to say it.

Even Fred begins to uncoil his body from around me and nudges me toward Raphael with his wet nose.

Still, I hesitate and ask, “Will I be able to come back?”

Finally losing the last of his patience, Raphael lunges forward with that vampire speed of his and latches onto my hand. “Yes.”

Before I can say goodbye to Fred, Raphael spins me around in his arms and shoves me into the black, gaping maw of the abyss.

The world doesn’t blur, smear, or spin around me.

I’m swallowed up by the abyss and drop into an endless oblivion.

I fall…

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