Exactly nine minutes later, the door opened and Draugr stepped inside, dressed in black combat gear, smelling faintly of gunpowder and ash. His pale eyes cut over me once, taking in the wall damage, the shattered chair, the tension vibrating through me.
“You found your mate?” he asked.
I nodded once, jaw tight. “They kept her like an animal. She has bruised ribs, she is malnourished, and there are fucking track marks on her arms. I can’t…” My hand clenched involuntarily. “If I leave now, I won’t stop until I’ve burned every one of them to the fucking ground. And she…” I exhaled sharply. “She needs me here, I need to stay here until she’s stronger, I’m not leaving her.”
Draugr’s expression didn’t shift, but there was something harder in his eyes now. “Then tell me what you need.”
“All of them. Everyone connected to that warehouse, to the women they kept there, to the chains. I don’t care if they’re Irish,human or demon, I just need you to find them. Make them talk, but Draugr…I want to kill them, and I want to know who gave the orders.”
He gave a single sharp nod. “Consider it done.”
“Take six men with you. You know who’s best for this, move fast, but stay off the grid. I don’t want Sorcha hearing anything later about this.”
His lip twitched faintly, not with amusement, but the recognition of exactly how far I’d go for this woman. “You’re already bonded with her.”
“Doesn’t matter,” I said. “What matters is she’ll never having to see one of those bastards alive again.”
He turned for the door, his boots silent on the floorboards. “I’ll send word when I have all of them.”
When the door shut behind him, the room felt bigger but no less empty. I stood there for a long time, fists still clenched, breathing deep until I could trust myself to go back to her without bringing all this rage with me. Tonight, Draugr would start the hunt and soon, I’d finish it.
The house was silent when I left my room, the kind of quiet that sat heavy, thick, as if even the air knew not to disturb me right now.
I went back to her.
Her door was still closed, the guards posted exactly where I’d told them to be. They straightened when they saw me, but it did nothing to soften the sharp edge in my voice.
“You two failed earlier,” I said, low and cold, the kind of tone that made even seasoned men shift on their feet. “She didn’t eat.That means you didn’t do your job. If she misses another meal, if she’s left wanting for anything again, I will make you regret breathing.”
They both nodded sharply, but I didn’t miss the flicker of fear in their eyes. Good. They needed to understand, she wasn’t just another protection detail. She was my woman, my mate.
As I stepped past them, my mind was already turning. These two wouldn’t be enough, not for the kind of watch I wanted on her. I needed men I trusted without hesitation. Men who wouldn’t blink if it came to laying down their lives for her. Draugr could spare a couple of his best for daylight hours. Troy, maybe, his silence and precision would suit Sorcha. Jerico, too, if I wanted someone with more visible bite.
Only the best and the most loyal, anyone else and I’d be gambling with something I had no intention of losing.
Inside, the room was dark, the curtains drawn tight against the rays from the full moon tonight. Sorcha lay curled under the blankets, her hair spilling like copper across the pillow. She looked smaller now, not because she was weak, but because the fight was banked deep inside her, like embers waiting for air.
I moved closer, careful not to wake her, and sat on the edge of the bed. Her breathing was even, her lips parted slightly. I could smell her now without the stink of blood and fear in the air, her own scent, sharp and wild, cutting through the dark like a promise.
My fingers hovered just above her cheek, not touching. Not yet. I’d already taken enough from her tonight, a bite, a bond, a claim she didn’t yet understand or want.
I leaned forward, resting my forearms on my knees, and just watched her.
When she was strong enough, I’d tell her everything about what the bond meant, how it worked. About the war she’d been pulled into the second the Irish laid hands on her. And when she knew, really knew, there’d be no running. Not because she couldn’t, but because she wouldn’t want to.
The men who’d touched her were as good as dead already. Draugr would find them, I had no doubt, and I’d take my time ending them. But that was only part of it. The rest… was going to be making sure no one in this world or the next would ever look at her the wrong way again.
I’d put her in the centre of my life, she would be my world, and I would try and keep her as far as possible from my war. And God help anyone who tried to take her out of my life.
Her fingers twitched in her sleep, like she was reaching for something. Without thinking, I slid my hand into hers. Her grip was weak, but she didn’t let go and neither would I.
The sight of her there, pale against the sheets, fragile in a way she wasn’t meant to be, did something to me I couldn’t name. I’d seen enough battlefields, enough blood to fill rivers, but this, watching her chest rise and fall, praying it wouldn’t falter, this terrified me more than anything I’d ever faced.
I leaned closer, brushing my thumb along her knuckles, careful, steady. “You’ll never be chained again,” I whispered, the words not a promise but a vow, spoken into the dark where only she and I existed. “You’re mine now. And mine means that you are untouchable.”
She shifted slightly, her brow furrowing as if she was fighting something in her dreams. The predator in me wanted to tear into her subconscious, rip out every shadow of fear the Irish had planted, but I couldn’t. Not yet. All I could do was hold her, watch her, make sure that when she woke, she saw me first and not a monster in the dark, not another captor, but me.
I stayed like that for hours, sitting sentinel at her bedside, planning in silence.
