20. Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty

N atalie

My legs feel like lead, each step a battle against the biting cold and my own exhaustion. I trudge on, my breath shallow, my limbs leaden, and my ankle aching . The cold has seeped into my bones, my blood… I barely feel it anymore. I can't stop. Won't stop.

All that exists is the ache in my chest, the hollow space that can only be filled by a certain silver-eyed wolven with a scarred heart and a soul too bright to be contained.

"Fury," I whisper, my lips numb and clumsy. "Where are you?"

And then, cutting through the swirling, shrieking chaos of the storm… I hear it.

A howl, low and mournful and, though I've never heard this noise come out of his mouth before, it's achingly familiar. Fury, calling for me.

"I'm coming," I breathe, fresh tears freezing on my cheeks. "I'm coming, Fury. Just hold on."

I throw myself in the direction of that howl, heedless of the way my ankle screams with every step. The pain is distant, unimportant. All that matters is reaching him, closing the distance between us before it's too late.

The storm fights me every inch of the way, the wind a living, malevolent force that seems determined to keep us apart. It buffets me from all sides, stealing my breath and stinging my eyes.

But I don't stop. I can't. Fury's howl is a tether, a lifeline, drawing me onward through the blinding, battering white.

"Fury!" I shout, the noise scrapes my throat but my voice is lost in the gale. "Fury, I'm here!"

I stumble, my numb feet tangling in a snarl of hidden roots. The world tilts crazily, white-on-white, spinning into a dizzying blur.

But then, out of nowhere, a flash of heat, of movement. Strong arms wrap around me, catching me before I hit the unforgiving ground. A familiar scent, pine and musk and something wild, envelops me like a second skin.

"Tally." His voice is a ragged gasp, barely audible over the shriek of the wind. "Goddess! I found you just in time."

He peppers my face with kisses, which I can't feel. My face has been numb since shortly after I left the cabin. But I feel his emotion, his affection. It soothes me to my very soul.

"What are you doing out here?"

The words are harsh, grating, but his hold is gentle as he clutches me to his chest.

"You're only human." It's not an accusation. His voice is filled with awe. "What were you thinking coming out in this weather?"

His lips are on me again, sweetly dusting every inch of my face with kisses as though they hold the key to my survival… and maybe his own.

Relief crashes through me, so sharp and sudden that I sag against him, my forehead falling to the curve of his throat. "F-find you," I manage, my teeth chattering. "Trying… trying to find you…"

" You were coming to rescue me?" The question is full of awe, revealing how touched he is that me, a mere human, came out in whiteout conditions to find a wolven. Now that I think of it, it was a pretty ridiculous decision.

"Had to find you." I nuzzle his neck, not to get his warmth so much as to drink in his precious scent.

"Tally…"

I clutch at his Henley, my numb fingers clumsy and unwieldy and it's only now I realize he's changed. Maybe I've lost my mind in this blizzard. Perhaps Fury isn't here in my arms at all. Maybe this is a hallucination because his fangs are protruding longer, his shoulders are impossibly wider.

"Am I dreaming you?" My voice is wavery and small, like a little girl's.

"Wolven do this, shifting into warrior form during times of high emotion. Our bodies change, our senses heighten—usually it's to protect someone they care for."

"Fury, listen to me. What I said back there, about my father… I should have told you sooner, I just…I was scared…"

"Scared of what?" He pulls back just enough to look at me, his quicksilver eyes gleaming in the spectral half-light of the storm. "Of me ?" He looks frantic, stricken at the thought I might fear him.

"No." I cup his face in my frozen palms, forcing him to meet my gaze. "Never of you. Of losing you. I know… I know I should have been honest from the start, should have trusted you to understand that I'm not my father's sins. But I let my fear control me and by doing that, I hurt you. I'll never forgive myself for that."

He's silent for a long moment, the rasp of our labored breathing the only sound other than the howling wind. The world has narrowed to this, just us, wrapped in each other, the storm a distant, insignificant thing .

Finally, he lets out a shuddering sigh, his forehead dropping to rest against mine. "I… I know you're not him, Tally. Rationally, I know that. But when you told me he's your father… it just brought it all back, all the pain and the rage and the fucking helplessness…"

Swallowing hard, I adjust my face so our lips are a breath away from touching. "I'm so sorry," I whisper again. "I never wanted to make you feel that way. It's just… I didn't know how… And Fury? I didn't want you to hate me."

"Stop." His fingers tighten around me. "Don't apologize to me. Not one more time. I… I shouldn't have run out on you like that. Shouldn't have left you alone with Shaddai, not knowing if I was coming back…fuck, Tally, what if something had happened to you? To both of you? And you coming after me? With every step an agony on your ankle. I should be horsewhipped."

The fear, the self-loathing in his voice, breaks my heart. I lean up, pressing my lips to the hinge of his jaw, the corner of his mouth. "We're okay. We're both okay. You found me, you saved me…"

He makes a choked sound, somewhere between a laugh and a sob. "That seems to be my job lately, doesn't it? Pulling your ass out of trouble?"

"Hey!" I swat at his chest, but I'm smiling now, smiling so hard my frozen cheeks ache with it. "I'll have you know I had everything under control, mister. I was coming to rescue you, remember?"

He huffs, but there's a smile tugging at his lips. "My hero."

For a moment we just grin at each other, the air between us warming, loosening. The shadows in his eyes recede, just a little, chased away by something soft and bright and full of promise.

But then a particularly violent gust of wind nearly knocks us both over and the spell is broken. Fury curses, pulling me tighter against him .

"We need to get out of this storm. Get you back to the cabin before you turn into a damn icicle."

I nod, my teeth chattering again as the adrenaline fades, leaving only bone-deep cold in its wake.

He hugs me tighter and lopes with me in his arms. I'm completely turned around. It strikes me with a sharp pang that if he hadn't come back to find me, I would have died out here tonight. But I shake that thought from my head because he did come back, and I'm tight in his arms. And he's taking me back to the cabin.