Page 57 of Wild Bond

I only had a moment to take in the determination in the harsh lines of his face. “Rake, what—,” I started.

He shocked me into silence as he grabbed my face with both hands and kissed me. Hard. His mouth swallowing up my surprised gasp.

I forgot my exhaustion, that I had almost just died, and the fact that I had blood and dirt—and Realms only knew what else— on me, and instead just sank into the kiss. Into the decadent heat and feel of his lips on mine.

I barely even had time to respond before he was pulling away and demanding, “Are you alright? Are you hurt?”

He scanned my face, then my body, his manner almost frantic, and I was reminded of the look on his face before I fell.

“I’m fine,” I assured him. “A little banged up from wrestling with a griffin, but it’s nothing that won’t heal.” My arm also hurt, and my shoulder still burned like the fiery pit of the Ninth Realm, but I didn’t mention that.

There was so much emotion radiating off of Rake in that moment that I couldn’t make sense of it all, and I didn’t want to make it worse by admitting that I was injured.

He surprised me again when he cupped my face once more, this time with a single callused hand, the gesture much more gentle as his thumb stroked my cheek.

“When I saw you fall . . .” he murmured, shaking his head. His eyes closed for a moment, as if he were wrestling with himself. A piece of his dark hair fell in his eyes, and I wanted to reach up and smooth it back from his face.

But of course, I didn’t. Because despite that kiss just now, and the way he was looking at me . . . this man wasn’t mine. And I couldn’t let myself wish he was, no matter how much I wanted to.

“We should help Zade,” I reminded him, stepping back.

His hand fell away from my face, and he straightened. He continued to stare down at me for a heartbeat.

I could tell there was something else . . . something more that he wasn’t saying. But now wasn’t the time. We both recognized that.

Rake nodded stiffly. “Later,” was all he said.

And from the resolved, almost possessive way he was looking at me as he said it, I wasn’t sure I was prepared for whatlatermeant.

It took some time to see to Valla’s many injuries. Naasir helped to pull the thick spear from her side, and Skye breathed fire over the wound, temporarily cauterizing it so Valla wouldn’t bleed out before it had time to heal. Her wing, which was broken in several places, had to be set as well. Once that was done, the poor female finally succumbed to her pain and exhaustion from the whole ordeal and fell asleep where she lay.

She was now resting fitfully while Skye kept her company curled up on the ground not too far away. Skye’s eyes were closed, her big head resting between her forelegs, but I could tell from the bond she wasn’t asleep, merely monitoring the quiet sounds of the forest around her. Naasir was patrolling the late evening sky, keeping watch and acting as a deterrent to any griffins that thought to attack us again. I had no doubt they would rally and return before long. We had to be on our way before that happened, but Rake and Zade thought we had some time before we needed to leave. And Valla wasn’t healed enough yet to shift to her minor form so we could fly back to Dessin.

Besides some cuts and bruises and a few nasty claw marks that Naasir had sustained, the rest of us came out of our encounter surprisingly unscathed.

My arm still hurt, but it already felt better than it had even an hour before. My fatigue, however, was worsening by the second. I finally gave in and sat down on a small boulder close to where Rake and Zade stood, afraid that if I didn’t, my knees would start shaking and give me away.

Rake used his foot to kick over the body of one of our attackers that lay on the ground.

“Zehvitian,” Zade cursed, noting the faded black armor and red and gold tunic.

“Why would Zehvitians attack us?” I asked.

“They probably weren’t working under the direction of the crown,” Zade guessed. “And if they were, there’s no way for us to prove that with all of them dead.”

“More likely, they are deserters or simply former soldiers. Minor skirmishes between our kingdoms have become common over the past few years since the war ended,” Rake explained.

The peace had been garnered right before I was imprisoned. From what little I had heard since being out, our nations may finally have peace after decades of conflict, but neither side was necessarily happy about it. We definitely didn’t like or trust each other, nor were we ready to forgive or forget all that had been done or the lives that had been lost.

My mother had once told me that my father had died fighting in the war. I had no way of knowing if that were true, of course. And if it was, I wasn’t sure how to feel about it.

Rake continued speaking, pulling me out of my thoughts. “I searched several of them, and none of them had anything that would explain their intent.”

“It doesn’t make any sense,” Zade argued. “Why would they attack three dragon riders? Even if they had ten of those catapults.”

Naasir had found the catapult our attackers had used to shoot Valla down hidden not far away, and then happily destroyed it with a single swipe of his powerful tail.

“What I’d like to know is how they knew we would be here at all?” Rake said. “I doubt it was random, but were they after us specifically?”

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