One long, deep breath in.
Release.
Take in more air.
That’s it.
He began to shift, just the initial part during which his ears elongated, and fur prickled at their tips. With his wolf-hearing at the fore, he detected a thousand different sounds coming from all parts of the compound. He began separating them out, picking up a sound, casting it aside until he registered Kiara’s footsteps on the stone of his long foyer.
When her footsteps ceased, he knew she’d levitated. He mentally followed her up into the air as she flew east. Her refuge wasn’t far away, less than a mile. She would go there, but only to pack up then she would leave Savage. She would turn the management of her refuge over to another witch capable of managing her complex security spell.
She’d said these things as though reciting a page out of an encyclopedia. She’d said his wife had come to her during their day’s sleep.
He had no reason to doubt anything she’d told him. He was certain his wife had appeared and prophesied his doom.
The black smoke, however, disturbed him, though he wasn’t certain why. His first assessment had been simple. The demented state had created an anomaly in the visitation. After all, she shouldn’t have been in a ghostly state in the first place. She was still alive.
He rubbed his forehead. A pain had formed between his eyes and was now sending lightning strikes into his brain.
He retracted his intense wolf hearing until it returned to a human version of normal.
But Kiara was gone.
Gone.
The pain in his head sliced straight down to his heart and cut the damn organ in half.
He rose up off the bench, mouth wide. He was grateful he’d made certain his quarters were sound proof because a howl left his throat that sounded like nothing he’d ever heard before. His howls hit the walls and rang in his ears creating an echo that increased the pain in his head.
He hurt into the soles of his feet, the marrow of his bones.
What came to him, ringing back with each new howl was the certainty he’d lost the only woman he’d loved in the past eight years.
He loved Kiara.
He loved her.
Dammit, he needed her. The past few days, working beside her, sharing his storm power with her in bed or in battle had forged a bond he didn’t want to
break. It might not be the permanent alpha bond, but it was there, something only the two of them had ever shared.
For his own sanity and to give fuller expression to his grief, he needed to let his wolf come. He went to his private track below his bedroom. He’d built it with plenty of head clearance for leaping and two dozen massive boulders to break up the monotony of the otherwise oval space with sand for a path.
With a single thought and eight years of practice, he shifted into his wolf form.
He made two circuits and landed on the tallest pile of boulders then howled again. The same strained resonance continued as he gave full voice to his grief.
Kiara was gone.
She’d left him to save him.
He knew it was the right thing to do as well, but he felt ripped in two. He’d lost the best part of himself when she’d walked out the door.
He ran for an hour, howled then ran some more.
When he’d exhausted himself, he ordered a meal to be brought to his room, showered then made the decision to see Tonya for himself. If there was any way that he could ask her about what she’d seen in the future, he had to try.
~ ~ ~