I swallowed, nodding. “Better.”
He kissed my temple, lingering, his lips brushing there like a vow etched into skin. His arms wrapped around me, pulling me to his chest, holding me so tight it was like he thought I might vanish if he let go.
“I need you to believe that I’ll always be here,” he said quietly, words meant for me alone. “No matter the war, no matter the monsters outside, you’re mine. And as long as I breathe, you will never face them alone again.”
I closed my eyes, letting the weight of him, the solidity, sink into me. For the first time since Keller’s name had passed my lips, the tremor in me began to fade.
Only when my breathing steadied, only when my body relaxed fully against his, did Lucien finally release a breath of his own. He brushed his lips across mine, feather-light, nothing like the brutal heat he so often burned me with. This kiss wasn’t about claiming, it was about calming.
And then, when he was certain I was steady, when my eyes no longer carried that fractured panic, he finally drew away. His hand lingered on my cheek, thumb tracing once more before leaning forward and kissing me gently.
And then, as if the restraint in him finally snapped, he tore himself away just enough to yank his phone from his pocket. His fingers shook as he dialled, not from weakness but from too much power fighting to get out.
The storm hadn’t gone. He’d just hidden it, for me. And when he dialled Draugr, I knew the monster inside him was finally going to have a target.
The call clicked open, Draugr’s deep, gravel voice answering, “Lucien.”
“Don’t touch Keller,” Lucien snapped before Draugr could say anything else. His voice was raw steel, sharpened to kill. “Don’t mark him, don’t break him. Don’t even fucking give him a scratch. Do you understand me?”
A pause, Draugr’s silence heavy, then “You want him alive.”
“I want him breathing,” Lucien corrected, pacing like a caged wolf, his free hand clawing through his hair. His eyes never left me, as if reminding himself why he hadn’t already sprinted into the night to rip Keller’s throat out with his bare teeth. “I want him knowing what’s coming. I’m going to leave soon and then I’ll be on my way. You hold him, Draugr. You fucking hold him.”
“You’ll have him,” Draugr said without hesitation.
Lucien’s jaw tightened, his fangs bared in a grim smile that wasn’t human at all. “Good. Because when I get there, I’ll make sure his last breath is spent choking on regret.”
He ended the call without another word, the silence after it loud enough to press against my chest.
And God help Keller, because I knew Lucien Dragic never made empty promises.
Chapter 16
The drive to the warehouse was a blur of rage and headlights. My hands were locked on the wheel so tight the leather threatened to split beneath my grip. Every turn of the tires, every second of distance closing, the fury inside me only grew sharper.
Keller.
The name itself was enough to twist the bond inside me, to make my chest burn with the echo of Sorcha’s fear. She’d tried to hide it, to stay strong, but I’d felt the quake in her when she said his name. I’d seen the shadows flicker across her face, shadows he had carved into her.
And that was unforgivable.
The thought of his hands on her, of him being one of the bastards who chained her, starved her, broke her down, it shredded the last of my restraint. He was already a dead man. The only question was how much of him I would strip away before I let him find that mercy.
The memory of my own chains rose unbidden, sharp as broken glass.
Years back, the Demons had taken me. A strike gone wrong, an ambush in the southern docks. They hadn’t killed me outright. No, they’d wanted me alive, wanted me weakened, poisoned. They’d dragged me down into their pits, fed me venom throughtheir claws until my veins burned like acid. I’d lasted longer than most would have, but it hadn’t mattered because eventually the edges blurred, the darkness crept in, and I’d thought I was finished.
My brothers had saved me. Barely. Roman tearing apart half a nest with his own hands, Draugr carrying me out with his shirt soaked in my blood, Viking and Volken holding the line until we made it back.
I’d lived, but I’d never forgotten. The poison had left its mark, a reminder of how close I’d come. And since then, my brothers had been relentless, watchful, never letting me push too close to the line again.
But tonight, there would be no hesitation. No poison that could weaken me. Only Keller.
The warehouse loomed before me, cold steel and shadows, lit by the pale wash of floodlights. Draugr was already there, his silhouette unmistakable, tall, broad, that predator’s stillness that said he was already half in a killing zone.
“Inside,” he said simply when I approached, his voice low, calm, but his eyes watching me too closely. He knew. He always knew when the rage was about to consume me.
The doors groaned open, and there he was.
