I close my eyes and focus, searching for that spark again. For a mont, there's nothing but the warmth of his skin, the steady thunder of his heartbeat.
There's so sort of current between us, pulling sothing out of and into him. I can feel it, but seeing it is another matter entirely.
Still, there's a strange sensation of sothing tangible, like water pouring through a pipe. Not easy to hold onto, but with so sort of weight and density, if I can sohow reach out and grab it. If I can just concentrate a little harder, push a little more…
It's right there. I can almost taste it, and it's strangely sweet and tal at the sa ti, giving an almost sickening feeling behind my jaw. My eyes burn behind my eyelids, and my heart squeezes and jumps around, falling out of rhythm.
For one flickering second, I swear I can grasp it, bend it—
Asher jerks his head away.
"No. We're not doing this." His voice leaves no room for argunt, and I swear frost covers my skin over how freaking cold he sounds.
Disorientation has my head spinning, and I bIink hard. It takes a little too long for his face to co into focus, and I wish it stayed out of focus once it gets there. He's staring at with a hard, flat expression.
My body's still prid for a montum no longer there, like a rollercoaster slamming to a freaking stop midway down the first big hill.
And everything under my skin is unbalanced and off-center, as if a vital piece of my soul's been disconnected. Dramatic, I know, but it's hard to explain sothing you've never given words before.
I rub my arms, trying to recapture even a whisper of that sensation, but there's nothing—just mories of a vague potential he snatched away right at the most important mont, damn it.
"But I was getting sowhere!" Okay. I sound a little childish and maybe not as reliable as I should be, but damn it, I was right there, and he moved, and now he's saying I can't try again? Really?
"You just fainted again," he says, arms folded to really hamr in his don't touch aura. "I'm not risking it again."
I roll my eyes, frustration bubbling up hot in my chest. "I didn't faint. I fell asleep."
But his mouth curves down into a frown and his eyebrows draw together, and I rember the strange dream and the odd way everything felt so tired and heavy right before I closed my eyes.
"Probably," I add reluctantly.
"Probably?" Asher raises an eyebrow now, thoroughly unimpressed. "That's not reassuring."
"But I was so close to—" To what? Understanding? Power? I don't even know what I'm reaching for, just… it feels important. Essential, even.
The Lycan King in front of doesn't budge. He's not warm Asher with daddy vibes anymore, not the guy who just kissed against my will (and made like it, but we aren't talking about that little detail). He's definitely the crowned wolf king at this particular mont, all cold and standoffish.
His expression might as well be carved from granite. Maybe that's what I should get him for a birthday. A stone carving of a wolf, saying it looks just like him.
A sharp bark cuts through the tension stewing between us, and Asher's head jerks up as he glowers out the window.
He growls, the sound rumbling from deep in his chest. "I swear, if that damn dog is back, I'm going to kick it."
I blink at him, montarily forgetting my frustration. "You can't just kick people's dogs, Asher." And he was surprised I might have—for a little bit, okay—thought he was a serial killer. Sheesh.
"Watch ," he mutters, skirting around like I'm the Black Plague in human skin and storming out the door. The entire camper shakes with each footstep.
I follow him outside, squinting in the sunlight. Everything has that peculiar after-rain-fresh sll to it, the air scrubbed clean. I breathe in deep.
A high-pitched squeal breaks through the quiet. Pip, spotting from where she's playing with Lily and Finn, races forward on unsteady legs, arms outstretched, with a huge grin on her face.
My heart lts, and I bend, ready to scoop her up—but Asher moves with supernatural speed, swooping the toddler into his arms before she can reach .
I stop short, arms empty.
Pip's face scrunches with confusion, little hands reaching for even as Asher holds her firmly against his chest.
Finn bounds toward next, dark curls bouncing. "Violet! Did you see what I—"
Asher neatly steps in his path, redirecting the boy with a hand on his shoulder. "Co help check the generator," he says.
The boy looks between us, deflating visibly. "Oh. Uh, okay? What's a generator? Do we get to make a fire with it?"
Even Fenris, usually so attentive, keeps his distance, circling wide around as if I'm surrounded by an invisible barrier. Maddox isn't even looking at —he's looking in the direction of the golden retriever bounding our way.
I wrap my arms around myself, feeling very alone and leprous all of a sudden.
Seriously, I can understand Asher avoiding , but why isn't he letting the kids near ?
Twenty feet away, the golden retriever bounds to a stop, tail wagging in a slow, steady rhythm and mouth open in a happy dog smile. Her coat catches the sunlight, turning into molten gold.
Lily bounces on her toes, pointing as she squeals, "The dog ca back!"
Finn squirms away from Asher, his previous disappointnt already forgotten. "Can we pet it? Please?"
"No."
Fenris trots forward, hackles raised as he snarls. It's a horrible, skin-crawling sound, louder than anything you'd hear from any dostic dog—and yet none of the kids flinch, though Lily does turn to frown at him.
The golden retriever flattens herself to the ground, tail tucked, ears back. Doesn't even blink. And, strangest of all, doesn't… leave.
Any normal dog would have run off with their tail between their legs.
Maybe she's one of those dogs with only two brain cells to rub together?
"Hi, neighbors!"
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