Page 48 of Winter's Edge
He laid his head next to my foot with his hand still curled around it. I settled in to sleep, nuzzling my face deeper into Sasha's fur. The sound of the crackling fire faded as I drifted, but not so much that I didn't hear Grady shift on my right. Something light brushed against the top of my thumb pressed to Sasha’s fur—his fingers, I realized—and then Grady's voice came, only inches away.
"I'm sorry too."His hand folded around Sasha, his fingertips still grazing my thumb and shooting an unexpected hum through my blood and a sudden burst of warmth around my heart.
I fell asleep, touched, in every way possible, by wolves.
Chapter 14
We would take turns in Slipjoint Forest with Sasha while we each did our parts. This was what terrified me the most. Not the fire that Archer and Grady would start, not entering the brothel by myself to search for Jade and Lee, not even Ronin's rescue. Just Sasha all alone with me. If something happened to her…I would never forgive myself. Not after everything she and her guardians had been through. Just the idea made me feel sick and shaky.
While Archer and Grady prepared to leave the next morning, I could barely lace up my boots. We couldn't fail tonight. There was too much at risk. My fingers trembled as I tried to tie my scarf around my eyes, and I had trouble bending them since they were already numb with cold. Grady had long since put our fire out.
When I'd protested, he'd said, "You're going to be cold all day anyway. What'sa little longer? Besides, it'll put hair on your chest."
I hadn't thought that was amusing, especially coming from a wolf shifter.
The scarf over my eyes was necessary since traveling here with three wolves I could see through, but had no control over who I was seeing through, had made my stomach do somersaults.
From outside, the sounds of Archer playing with Sasha couldn't even make a smile crack through all my worries. He was trying to get her to growl, but she just gave gentle yips. Adorable, but we could really use more growling.
Grady came in then, sounding as if he were smashing through the entire rickety cabin. "You're still not ready?"
"You're going to put a muffle on yourself tonight?" I countered. "Do you know how to sneak?"
"Never needed to. Here." He whipped my scarf out from between my fingers. "Since you're moving at the speed of ice."
"Hmm, I wonder why. Maybe it's because someone put out the fire."
He grunted, his usual response when he knew I was right. He pressed the scarf to my eyes and looped it around my head.
"Watch the hair," I warned. I'd already managed to put it up first thing so it would stay out of my face.
"Yeah, yeah." His breath feathered across my nose, a light caress so at odds to the yanking and pulling behind me.
"Are you scared?" I blurted.
"No. Are you?"
"What if something happens to Sasha?"
He pulled away, the scarf now in place. "If we stick to the plan, nothing will happen to Sasha. Or Ronin. Or Archer or you."
"You forgot to add yourself."
"I don't need to. I know my part."
"I do too."
"Then play it. Stop worrying about the what-ifs and start worrying about the aftermath. Because therewillbe one." There was an edge to his voice at that last part, one that scraped over my flesh and trailed goose bumps behind.
"Then all of us need to stay together to face it,” I said. “I go with you, and you go with me. We're connected now. We both had something taken from us. Now we're going to take it back, and I meanallof it—your land in the Crimson Forest, my family and our means of survival, not just what we take back tonight."
His gaze penetrated deep, searching every corner of my face despite my blindfold. The air flickered between us, and the size and strength of him flooded my awareness.
"You really mean that, don't you?" he said.
"Of course I do."
Something shifted. Not like an actual movement, but something that echoed like one, like a decision made with finality.
