My breath caught as my heart dropped to my feet.
He didn’t mean it...
Rune twisted his lips into a harsh smile as he cupped the back of my head.
“Elskan mín, you have a kind heart, and that’s one of the countless things I love about you. But I’m not a good man. Not to anyone else. Only to you. And I mean every word when I say they all will die if you’re taken from me again. If I see one drop of your blood again, I’m killing them all.”
ChapterNineteen
Not much time passed in the destroyed town while Rune and I were in our own little world. While it seemed like two hours of us having sex, then him doing my hair, only ten minutes went by.
Because Rune wanted to avoid me spiraling into another freak-out, he skipped going back into the town and went straight to the path that led to the stable. The others were already waiting for us on the trail and updated Rune about what they found.
When I saw the others were okay, especially Harper, I released a breath I didn’t realize I held. But a stone of worry sat heavily in my stomach that they hadn’t found Hegnan or Rekja. But they noticed a message from them in the form of marks engraved into the bark of a tree. The specific symbols let the men know they were being followed. I didn’t understand why they didn’t take care of the people who were following them.
“Because they want to take them alive and have a talk with them,” Slátra said easily when I asked.
There it was again. Him wanting totalkto people, which didn’t involve talking.
I shivered. But I had to believe Hegnan and Rekja were okay. If I put it in my mind they were alive and just waiting for the perfect time, then maybe it’d come true. I couldn’t live with myself if they died.
Rune’s fingers brushed my cheek, and his lips whispered against my ear.“Don’t do this to yourself, elskan mín. Stop torturing yourself with things that aren’t under your control.”
I glanced up at Rune as we walked. His eyes turned down to mine, his face unreadable. But with our link open, he was frustrated and concerned about everything. But his primary focus was on me and his irritation with everyone for upsetting me. That and for people coming for me when he didn’t know who exactly it was other than someone associated with the wolf clan from centuries ago.
Until our link, I never understood the depths of his feelings for me. Especially when I learned we were soulmates, and he lost me however long ago. Centuries, I thought he said. Around the same time as the wolf and dragon war that Rune talked about.
“I was there when she died. I held her in my arms when she passed.”Rune’s murmured confession from our date replayed in my mind.
My stomach twisted, and I swallowed hard as I peered at Rune again with tears stinging the back of my eyes.
He held me in his arms twice as I died. He watched his soulmate fade away before he could do anything to help. All this time he’d been alone and searching for me. He had to have been in pain. Or lonely. Did he feel the missing half of his soul when I was dead? Especially the first time around when there was a long period of time before I was born?
Rune’s gaze snapped to mine, and he stopped walking to turn me into him. His hands cupped my cheeks as his eyes flicked over my face.
“No tears. Not for me,” he murmured as his thumb stroked away a tear that slipped free.
My lip wobbled as I threaded my fingers through his hair that wasn’t braided. His pupils dilated from the simple touch. They flared with love and desire, helping to push my sorrow aside.
“Yes, for you.” I swallowed around the lump in my throat. “You’ve been alone all these years as you looked for your soulmate with the memory of holding her as she died. I’m sure you’ve had sleepless nights because of what meets you on the other side of your dreams. And I’m positive during that time, you wanted her back in your arms for comfort. Then you find me and had a taste of being whole again until I died in your arms.” I swallowed hard again as Rune’s face cracked with pain. “So I’m going to cry for you because you deserve empathy. You deserve to be held and comforted too.” His eyes shone with tears as he stared at me for a long moment, then pulled me into him for a tight hug. I didn’t care that it was hard to breathe as he squeezed me—I eagerly returned the embrace. And I didn’t care that the others had to stop a few feet away to stay in a group for more protection. I wanted to hold Rune and somehow pass all my love and empathy for him through it.
His fingers threaded through my hair at the back of my head, not caring that it was pulled up in a messy, wet bun. Through his touch, I went through his turmoil, which he quickly reined back and blocked from me. But in the split second of him sharing his pain, I felt closer to him. It was like another piece of us joined with one tiny thread that needed some TLC.
Rune needed to know it would be okay too. He needed the same words of comfort he gave me.
Nuzzling under his jaw, I brushed a kiss at the back of it right under his ear. I breathed him in and squeezed him tighter as his familiar scent filled my senses.
Incense and wilderness.
My eyes slid shut as black spots bled into my vision, making my head swim. I got to the tip of my toes and pressed my lips to his ear. I tightened my hold on his hair at his scalp, earning a muffled groan from him, his hands on me hardening. A flare of his red hot desire surged through our link, and I eagerly fed him more with mine.
Something in me opened its eyes and rose from the deepest part that never saw the light of day until Rune came into my life.
“No one will harm you,hjartans gjöf,” I murmured in a sultry voice that lilted with a familiar accent.
He stiffened with a sharp inhale and reared back to look at me with wide eyes. His turbulent thoughts and shock became mine as it swarmed through our bond.
“What did you say?” he asked, his voice low and clipped.
