“—doesn’tcome around soon, I’m going to put your balls in a vice.”
Iris’s words pierce through the fog in my skull, dragging me towards consciousness like barbed wire snagging skin.
“He’s awake.”
Kael.
Terror crawls up my throat even as relief bounces around my chest. My body pulses with something raw, sharp-edged, emotions not entirely my own. My breath shudders out. My fingers twitch.
And then it slams into me.
Fear. Not mine.
Kael’s.
It grips my lungs, coils tight in my ribs, a gut-deep panic that doesn’t belong to me but pulses through my bloodstream as if itdoes. My stomach lurches. My hands clench. The unease grows, hot and suffocating, right alongside a searing anger.
I gasp.
The bond. Fuck.
The events play out behind my closed eyelids—Kael, the Hendroy, the sheer, inhuman terror of standing in front of him, of knowing Kael was about to die. And then my voice, my body moving before thought, throwing myself between them. The words I spat out:He’s my mate.
I started the process.
And Kael knows it.
Knows I’m awake. Knows I can feel him. His worry mounts, rising in waves, crashing over me so fiercely that my own thoughts scatter. I need to move, to let him know I’m here, but my body still feels like lead, sluggish and wrung out.
Move, idiot.
I force my hand up, blindly reaching into the space beside me. Kael’s fingers latch onto mine instantly, strong and grounding, his grip firm like he’s afraid I’ll disappear. A second later, his other hand brushes my hairline, fingers sifting through strands damp with sweat, sweeping them back with a gentleness that rattles me.
“You’re okay,” he murmurs, rough with relief. “You’re okay.”
I hum, a weak, croaking sound, but it’s enough. His fingers tighten around mine before smoothing out again.
“Yeah,” I rasp. “Alive, I think.”
“You are.” His voice is thick with something unspoken.
“I was about to beat the shit out of Henny,” Iris grinds out, her voice sharp with fury.
A laugh—rough, choked—punches out of me. “Henny?”
“Not his real name, obviously,” she mutters. “But that bastard deserves it for nearly killing you.”
I pry my eyes open slowly, the light sending a stab of pain through my skull before it evens out. Blinking past the haze, I take them in. Kael, crouched beside me, fingers still tangled in my hair, his gaze burning with an intensity that makes my throat tight. And Iris, arms crossed, shoulders tense, her mouth pressed into a hard line.
Iris exhales sharply. “I’m sorry.”
That yanks me out of my haze. I shift, trying to push myself up, but Kael’s hand instantly presses against my chest, urging me to stay down.
I frown at her. “For what?”
She glances at Kael before looking back at me, her lips twisting. “You remember what happened?”
“Your… the Hendroy,” I say, throat dry. “He… he was going to kill Kael. And I—” My breath hitches. “The bond.”
