She was his sanctuary.
And his worst hell. For her, there was nothing he wouldn’t do. Even consign himself to death.
When she came in his arms, he held her close and joined her there in that perfect peace. And as they panted, he felt his heartbeat speed up as the thirio rose in his blood. It was an animalistic need to combine his life force with hers so that he wouldn’t be forced to live without her again. It was something all unbonded Were-Hunters felt whenever they had sex with their mates.
He’d made the mistake once of asking her to bond with him. And while her words of declination had been kind, the look of absolute horror in her hazel eyes was forever seared in his heart. It had shriveled a part of his soul to see that harsh reaction.
That rejection.
So he held her in his arms and didn’t bother repeating that nightmare.
Seraphina listened to the fierce pounding of Max’s heart beneath her chin as she traced circles over his chest and around his nipple. Her own heartbeat was trying to synchronize to his. To bond with it. She could even feel her teeth elongate for the ceremony that would fully unite them.
In life and death.
And in her mind, she remembered when Max had first asked her to. It’d been right after they’d been mated. After she’d tossed the knife away and accepted him.
His unexpected request had shocked her.
Now…
“Would you bond with me, Maxis?”
He went completely still and turned rigid around her. “Pardon?”
Lifting herself up, she looked down at him. “Can we bond?”
A light scowl drew his brows together as he brushed the hair back from her face. “There is nothing on this earth I’d like more…”
“Then why do I sense a but in your tone of voice?”
“You know the but. I’m under a death warrant, with pretty much every Were-Hunter in existence gunning for me. And we have two dragonets who need their mother to watch over them. I can’t risk the chance that I fall and take you with me to the grave.”
“I won’t let them have you.”
He tightened his arms around her. “And that is the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me. Thank you. But I can’t accept a bond with you right now.”
Wishing for things to be different, Seraphina laid her head on his chest and touched the mark on his leg. “How do we stop the demons who want you?”
“That is the question, my lady, that I wish desperately I had an answer for.”
Suddenly, a fierce screeching cry sounded from the forest around them.
Sera pulled back. “What is that?”
Max sat up immediately. “It’s a Bane-Cry. Illarion’s under attack.”
12
Max returned to Sanctuary to find all manner of hell breaking loose. Rémi was holed up in Peltier House with his brother Cherif, Carson, and the children and pregnant females, along with the Howlers and a contingency of Arcadians and Katagaria ready to lay down their lives for Aimee and the others.
As he came down the stairs from his attic with Sera behind him, he met Rémi in the hallway outside Aimee’s bedroom. No doubt Rémi had taken that post to make sure no one came near his sister and threatened her while she rested.
Max paused in front of him. “What’s going on? I heard my brother call.”
With his familiar sneer in place, Rémi jerked his chin toward the stairs that led down to the main part of the house. “Illarion’s with the others in the bar. We’re holding the fort here. The Amazons returned with the Kattalakis Arcadian wolves who want your ass on a platter. You should probably stay here while Dev and the others deal. Personally wish they’d have let me get an ounce of wolf flesh. Since I can’t have Fang for taking my sister, I’d settle for his cousins.”
In spite of the fact that most shifters and people didn’t like Rémi due to his acerbic personality, Max strangely did. They’d always seen eye to eye with their basic philosophy. When in doubt, kill them all and let the gods sort it out.