Page 31 of Alan

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Alan

“Do not touch her!” I roared, pointing up and down both sides of the table. “She is mine!”

“What? I have to catch her!” Keira cried out as she stood up and attempted to push her way past me.

“No,” I growled, standing my ground.

Tamhas threw an arm in front of her to halt her progress, while both she and the other witches gaped at me.

“Do not deign to give us orders,” Selene warned.

“She is mine.” I could offer no further explanation and had no time in which to do so before I ran down the tunnel after her. She would come to no good end, wandering in the woods on her own. If she even made it there, fleeing in desperation as she had been.

It was possibly the least intelligent thing I’d ever done, declaring her as mine before the entire clan and a coven of witches, but there had been no stopping it. My dragon had spoken for me, and there was no denying such deep, fundamental truth when the time came.

I finally understood what it meant to find my mate. I understood the determination with which Tamhas had insisted he protect Keira when she first found us. I understood what it meant to care more for another than I did for my clan.

The difference, I was the clan leader. It was my entire purpose. How could I hope to make her mine when the clan needed me as much as she did?

“Emelie!” I called out, my voice bouncing back to me off the cave walls. “Emelie, stop! You’ll harm yourself!”

Her footfalls grew quieter as she put more distance between us. She was extremely quick. I was uncertain as to how I would find her in the woods—the dragon could, but that would mean revealing my dragon before she was prepared.

I would not do that to the lass. It would only upset her more.

“Emelie, please! Let us explain! None of us wish to hurt you!”

“Leave me alone!” she cried out, and in the growing light as I approached the mouth of the cave I made out her petite form as she continued to flee from me.

“You’ll only become lost out there! Please, wait for me. I won’t hurt you.”

She was beginning to slow down; while she possessed speed, she did not have my endurance. I took advantage of this and put on extra speed, catching her before she disappeared into the dense woods just beyond the cave mouth.

“Don’t touch me!” she shrieked when my hand closed around her arm, recoiling as though my touch burned through the coarse sweater.

“I merely wished to stop you before you became lost,” I explained, though my dragon loathed the sound of an apology. I’m merely explaining, not apologizing. It seemed to matter little to him, as he would generally rather thrash his way about and wreak havoc, as he’d been about to do back in the cave.

If anything, Emelie’s run for freedom could not have come at a better time. It gave me an excuse to get out of there without starting a war.

It might also have provided the excuse I needed to put space between myself and my clan, as they were likely furious with me for holding back such sensitive information.

Now, standing in front of a gasping, sobbing, sweating wreck of a girl I wanted nothing more than to enfold in my arms and comfort, there were more important matters to attend to.

“I know this seems beyond understanding,” I said, hands raised palm-out to signal that I meant her no harm.

She was a cornered animal, wounded and terrified, gray eyes wide enough that they seemed to take up half her face.

“You think?” she gasped, nearly laughing in a high-strung, humorless way. “Gee, yeah, I guess it is.”

“I only want you to understand that Keira is still the Keira you knew.” Somehow, instinctively, I sensed this was what wounded her most deeply. The idea that her best friend was someone completely foreign, some “other” unlike herself.

“You don’t know anything about this.” Her eyes swept the ground around us as she took one after another unsteady backward step, her hands moving about behind her to catch obstructions before she backed into them.

She was looking for a weapon.

I forced myself to exhibit greater calm than I possessed. “I know she took a great chance in slipping away from us to look for you. I must admit, I did not wish for her or any of us to go. It meant exposing ourselves to danger—and we have,” I added, “though I do not blame you for it.”

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