Page 65 of The Barbaric Fae's Soul

My eyes narrowed at Oren.

He didn’t think my feelings for her were genuine. If he’d let something happen to her because of that…

“I didn’t see her,” he said, his gaze meeting mine. “I was focused on the klynna. You reached the end of your ice?”

I jerked my head in a nod.

My magic was finite—there was only so much of it. And after losing my mate bond twice, and then spending days awake and fighting, it had run out. I needed to rest, to give my body time to recover.

But that didn’t matter.

Nothing mattered except Dakota, until she was in my arms, against my chest, breathing steadily with that soft, tiny smile she wore while she slept.

“Someone must’ve grabbed her,” Blue said quickly, though her face was pale and her eyes were lifting to the trees.

“She didn’t fall,” Presley rasped. Her eyes were closed, her face twisted in pain. Her injuries would heal, but by the shallow way she was breathing, I knew it would take time. “The klynna had her.”

My breathing stopped.

Myheartstopped.

The klynna had her.

“The magic didn’t work,” Presley added, though her voice was shakier, the words sounding more like breaths. The woman was in serious pain—pain that would likely knock her out again, soon. “It wouldn’t turn around. I think it took her.”

Fear welled in my chest.

I wasn’t connected to her—we weren’t bonded.

I couldn’t hunt her by scent.

I couldn’thelpher.

“Aev,” Oren started to say, but I was already moving.

Running.

Sprinting.

Like a fucking ghost through the trees.

I couldn’t find my Thorns, but Teris could. And that bastard would take me to her.

Finding him wasn’t difficult;I’d smelled his scent on her skin all week. It had been driving me mad, though I hadn’t let her see how much I despised it.

I reached him in less than two minutes, finding him tensed in a tree, watching the remaining fliers in the sky. The klynnas were all gone, but there were still fae above us, watching. Waiting.

Making sure we were truly safe.

I shifted in an instant, snarling, “Dakota was taken. Lead me to her.”

The words weren’ttame.

I would never be that, not when it came to her.

That woman was sunshine, in every fucking way. She deserved a hell of a lot better than me—but I’d love her more than life itself if she let me.

Teris didn’t pause, or think.

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