Page 42 of Never Tamed
Her breath catches. She looks at me, tilts her head, and something stirs in my blood. This time, my cock isn’t what swells. My heart does.
I twine our fingers together and squeeze. “Come on. Let’s get back. The others are too damn slow to keep up with me, but they’ll be close and worried.”
She squeezes me back, lets me haul her to her feet. I glance at the temple one last time, mimicking her motion, before she turns. We walk out of the ruins together.
We’ll definitely have to shift to make it down faster, or we’ll risk hypothermia and exposure. I don’t want to freeze to death. But first—
“How?” I stop, finally asking the question that’s been buzzing in my brain. “How did you get all the way up here, and so fast? I tracked you for a bit and then your footprints disappeared.”
Red hesitates before meeting my gaze. “I… don’t know exactly. I was dreaming. Or I thought I was. I ran, shifted, but it didn’t feel normal.”
“What do you mean?”
She exhales a sharp breath. “I wasn’t just fast, Dax. It was like I was flying.Like I wasn’t even touching the ground.”
Surprise widens my eyes, and she chuckles at my reaction.
“It’s true. It was crazy. I could hear Anna—the Moon Goddess—calling me, telling me to come find her, and then before I knew it, I was at the temple.” She sweeps her arm back at the ruins and the statue.
“That woman there…she was—”
“Yeah,” Red interrupts. “Crazy, right? I’ve seen her a couple of times. She’s always been there to help me when I needed it, but I didn’t know it was her. I actually thought she was working for Andras at one point.”
The Goddess is real. And she showed herself to Red. Not only tonight, but in the past.
“That’s—”
I don’t know what to say. It’s insane. But I saw the glowing no-smell lady for myself.
I settle on, “Damnit.”
“She said she gave me gifts,” Red adds. “She said I have what I need to beat Andras and that things have already started.” She looks over her shoulder, toward the temple. “She said I have to be her sword.”
This woman already absorbed the moonstone.
“Her weapon?” I ask.
This is all sounding really familiar, but I’m not sure how it all connects to Red. Mathis will know, though. He’ll be able to explain it.
She huffs a tired laugh. “Thanks for coming after me.”
I glance at her. “I’ll always come after you.”
She stops walking. So I stop, too.
Her eyes search mine. “I don’t know if I can do this,” she whispers, and the pain in her voice damn near kills me. “It’s too much.”
Every part of me wants her. Every part of me wants to fix this for her, but I’m at a loss. I have no fucking clue what to do.
I shift awkwardly from foot to foot. “You’re not doing anything alone, Red. There’s no way in hell I’ll let you.”
She wraps her arms around herself to try and keep out the chill. “Thanks. Having the four of you does make it less overwhelming.” Then she leans in, mouth slightly parted, and I meet her halfway.
Her lips are cold, soft, but the kiss is warm. Slow. The kind of kiss that heats you from the inside out. It’s tender and gentle, everything I’m not.
With Red, everything seems easier. Even talking to that pussyfoot, Noble.
When I run my tongue along the seam of her lips, about to draw her in closer, something shifts inside.
