“Will you back off?” Toshi asks.
I throw him a grateful look as I make my way for the door.
Clarissa.
I whip my head around and glare at Sebastian as a low growl rumbles from his chest. I can feel the sound reaching out to me. I can feel my body wanting to cave to him. And I don’t like it. I don’t enjoy this control he seems to have over me. But if he thinks my base instincts will somehow make me weak against him, he has another thing coming. If he wants to be my mate, then he will have to see me as his equal.
Not as some slice of pussy he can control whenever he wants.
I slam out of the house and shut the door closed with a thud. My body immediately begins shivering as I walk through the snow. I feel smothered by them. All of them. Joel. Sebastian. Even Josie at times. And it doesn’t help that I’m not sleeping well. If it isn’t nausea, then it’s flashes. Images of Kyle in a cage and flashes of the Council dying between my teeth. My nightmares are in full swing, drenching me in cold sweats in the dead of night.
I need some time away.
And I think Vlad needed the same thing.
Shivering uncontrollably, I suck it up and begin to walk around the camp. I take in all the greenhouses seemingly unaffected by the weather around them. I wave to a few of the kids running around outside. So innocent. So tender. Full of life and laughter and love. It pains me to think about what’s coming. It makes me sick to think the Council might want to harm them. Kill them.
Or worse, turn them into me.
Or into whatever the hell they’ve done with Kyle.
My hand falls to my stomach as I breach the woods. The snow is shin-deep, slowing me down. But my mind isn’t clear, and I don’t feel far enough from the cottage to be able to breathe, so I press on. Through the fog and the snow and the powder blowing in my face, I deal with the cold penetrating my bones as I head deeper into the darkness of the thicket.
But a sound catches my ear.
Growling. Thrashing. The cracking of a few bones. I whip my head around and sniff the air, and I recognize the scent.
Vlad.
Is he hurt?
Something akin to dread fills my veins, and it makes me confused. Why am I worrying over him? But my heart is drumming in my ears, my hands growing sweaty, and my feet carry me as fast as they can in the direction of the sound. Adrenaline is kicking in, and I can feel my claws trying to come out to play. My vision focuses, and my nose takes a big sniff before my body corrects its movements. I’m allowing my senses to carry me. I’m allowing the smells in the air and what I see to guide me. I give myself over completely to my instincts and dip down to all fours, running as fast as I can through the forest.
Then, I see it.
Vlad’s shadow behind a tree.
I rise up onto my feet and draw in a deep breath. But he steps out from beyond the trunk. Vlad’s eyes lock with mine, and I can see the steam rising from his body. The warmth turning to frozen vapors as the cold tries to wrap itself around him.
But my eyes are drawn to something else.
His chiseled abs drift into a lean and toned chest. His legs are long, pulsing with veins bulging from his thighs. His hands are clenching into fists, and his forearms are beckoning to me. He’s tall and lean, with pads of muscles that drape around his hips and broad shoulders encased in throbbing strength.
There are clothes in tatters lying in the snow, but I can’t take my eyes off him.
He’s beautiful, and I feel my voice getting caught in my throat.
“Clarissa? Is everything all right?”
My eyes shoot up to his, and I watch as he approaches me. My nostrils flare with his scent as his warmth engulfs me. I’m trembling at his mercy, no longer cold as the snow flutters around us. My neck cranes back to keep his beautifully wild eyes in my view.
I can feel my knees growing weak.
“Here, you must be freezing,” he says.
He opens his arms for me, and I willingly step into his grasp. It’s like two pieces of a puzzle fitting together after years of separation. I melt into his embrace. Into the strength of his sculpted muscles. His arms descend around my body, and his hands plant firmly onto the small of my back. I slide my hands across his skin as I breathe in his scent. It’s intoxicating. I can feel my head spinning. I can’t take deep breaths. My heart is threatening to burst from my chest, and all I can hear is the sound of blood rushing through my ears.
I try not to want him. But it doesn’t work.