Chapter 25 CHAPTER 25
But she didn’t, and I found myself thinking back to the first time I saw her in the forest.
Small. Determined. Hunting something she had no business chasing in a place she should never have been. There had been fear in her then too, but it hadn’t stopped her. She had moved anyway, pushed forward like she had something to prove to the world.
Just like now. A fire. One I tried to put out.
One that refused to die.
My grip around her tightened slightly without me realizing it, my gaze still fixed on her as the firelight flickered across her face.
I didn’t understand why I kept her, why I followed, and why I pulled her from the ice instead of letting the cold take her.
But as I held her there, feeling the faint rise and fall of her chest against me, one thing became clear in a way I could not ignore.
That fire in her… I was not ready to lose it.
Her body shifted in my arms. It was small and weak. Barely there, but I felt it instantly.
My gaze dropped to her face, watching closely as her breathing changed, still uneven but stronger than before. A faint sound slipped past her lips, almost like a broken breath, and my grip tightened slightly around her without thinking.
“She’s waking…” I muttered under my breath.
Good. That should have been enough.
It wasn’t.
Something else followed with it, something sharper, more alert, rising beneath my skin as I watched her. The beast stirred again, not with the same rage as before, but not quiet either. It shifted, restless, and aware... of her.
My jaw tightened. “Stay down,” I growled softly, though I wasn’t sure if I was speaking to her… or to it.
Her head moved slightly against my chest, her brow tightening as if she was trying to fight her way back into consciousness. Her fingers twitched weakly against the fur blanket, brushing against my arm before falling still again.
The small contact hit harder than it should have. My body tensed instantly. "Damn it!" There it was again.That shift in me. Not rage.
Not control, something else. Something worse.
I moved before I could think, adjusting my hold on her, pulling her just enough to keep her steady, but also creating distance between us. Not much. Just enough to remind myself where the line was.
She was human. Weak. Breakable, and I had already come too close to crossing that line.
Her eyes fluttered slightly, not fully opening, but enough to show she was fighting her way back. A faint sound left her throat, rough and strained, and I could see the moment the cold still clinging to her body hit her again.
She shivered harder. My eyes darkened slightly as I looked down at her. “Damn it,” I muttered, irritation creeping back in, though it felt thinner now, less certain.
She was alive because of me. And still… she would fight me the moment she had the strength to do it.
I could already see it.That fire wasn’t gone.
It was just waiting.
My hand moved before I could stop it, brushing a damp strand of her hair away from her face. The red caught the firelight again, bright against everything else in this room, against everything else in this place.
It didn’t belong here, and neither did she... and yet… she was here, in my arms. Because I brought her back. Because I chose not to let her die.
My hand stilled for a moment before I pulled it back, my jaw tightening again as I forced myself to look away.
“This changes nothing,” I said quietly, more to myself than to her. It had to mean nothing.
She was still a problem. Still a risk.
Still something that could turn everything against me if I let it.
But even as I told myself that, my arms didn’t loosen around her. I didn’t push her away.
And I didn’t leave, because no matter how much I tried to deny it… something had already changed.
_____
VERA
Warmth wrapped around me, steady and real, and for a moment I just lay there, not moving. My face was pressed into something soft, and I could hear it now, clear as day.
A heartbeat. Slow. Strong. Not mine. I slowly lifted my chin, my breath catching as I realized where I was. My face had been nuzzled into his chest, his thick fur warm against my skin. His arms were wrapped around me, large and heavy, holding me in place like I belonged there.
I froze.
The last thing I remembered was the ice cracking beneath my feet. The cold consuming me. The water, and now… this.
My heart started pounding as the realization settled in. He had pulled me out. He had saved me. But the thought didn’t bring comfort. It only made things more confusing.
Why would he save me?
He had just tried to strangle me. I swallowed hard, my body still stiff in his arms as I tried to make sense of it. One moment, he had been ready to kill me, and now I was here… held against him like I was something he didn’t want to let go of.
It didn’t make sense. None of it did. I stayed still for a moment longer, my body tense in his arms, listening to the steady rhythm of his breathing. It didn’t match the chaos I expected from him. It was slow. Even. Calm in a way that didn’t make sense after everything that had happened.
Carefully, I tried to move, just a little. I shifted my arm, testing it, barely lifting it from where it rested against his chest. His grip tightened instantly, and I froze.
Every muscle in my body locked as his arms pulled me closer, pressing me back against him. My heart jumped into my throat, panic rising so fast it made it hard to breathe. I didn’t move again, didn’t dare, as I waited for him to react, for him to wake, for everything to turn back into what it was before.
But nothing happened. The room stayed quiet.
His breathing didn’t change. It stayed Slow, and steady. Completely Unbothered.
I swallowed, my body still stiff as I listened closely, trying to make sure I wasn’t imagining it. After a few seconds, I gathered just enough courage to slowly tilt my head up, my eyes lifting toward his face.
He was asleep.
The tension in my chest shifted slightly, not gone, but different now, mixed with something I couldn’t quite name. I stayed where I was, watching him carefully, as if he might wake at any second and prove me wrong.
But he didn’t, and for the first time since I had been brought here, I really looked at him.
Not as the thing that dragged me from my home. Not as the creature that chased me through the forest. But like this… still, quiet, unaware.
His fur was dark brown, thick enough to protect him from the cold, but softer than I expected. I had felt it before, but never like this, never close enough to notice the way it shifted slightly with his breathing, or how warm it was beneath my cheek.
He still looked like a beast. There was no denying that. But up close, there were things that didn’t fully match that. The shape of his face, the structure beneath the fur, the way his features settled while he slept. There was something almost… human about it.
It was strange, and very usettling to say the least, because it made it harder to see him as just one thing.