One: M
ra
iltered through the canopy in soft beams, like it knew secrets it would never share. I mov
wasn'
toni
ered long ago beneath blood s
was w
lo Ke
the Blood
Alp
ines against the moonlight. Even the trees around him leaned forward like they k
t turn a
new I wa
late,"
"You said
oon peaks. That wa
the clearing. "You never
care abo
at. Because I wanted to
the right thin
e they'
t. I let him
hadn't been. His hands had pulled me from battlefields, had brushed dirt from my w
me we'd stand here together
lfish and qui
he
long enough for
ing. When the time is right
owly. I'd he
times
you," I said. "I'
ve," he replied. "That
that burned like fire. His fin
doubt me
hispered.
unger, and I melted into it because that's what
s lips and mine, somethi
watching the moon ripple across the
ound me
ed to ask. Sh
e said, sitting beside me
head. "He
d. "He alway
t," I said.
y know something you're still too scared to
the promise,
f it's
n't a
it a squeeze. "He's powerful. Bu
r. "Do you thi
hink you're in love. And
*
s pa
nd Gonzalo's voice, hi
rategy meetings, before bloodbaths.
. To him, I was his, so long
idge. He would press his body against mine like a
t trust
me," I'd w
he only o
e if I didn't, the alt
smelled of him. I l
, no cere
heart couldn
me?"
ething colder than the n
promi
. I didn't say
allowing the shar
edge softened when
e to me than any cer
een," I whisper
fer in the
safer with m
es dar
ul," h
rning. "Or what? You'll ba
n't re
the truth
night, not in
sa had been r
ed in was just another leash
n, I stared u
nto the silence, "am I h
deep inside, my wolf stirre
hat stil
if it stirred