“I don’t have to like it,” Fen snapped. He turned on his heel and was gone.

Dimitri dropped his hand on Zev’s shoulder. “You know how he feels about you. And he’s always been overprotective, much, I’m sure, as you’ve been all your life.”

Zev grinned at him. “It’s different from this side of the fence.”

Dimitri shrugged. “I’m used to it, and I know he gets like that because I matter to him. So I just let him do his thing and then I go my own way.”

Tatijana leaned over to kiss Branislava’s cheek. “I’ll see you next rising?”

Branislava nodded. “Take care of him.”

“You know I will.”

Skyler came back into her own body, pale and trembling after using up most of her energy to do the best she could to heal the gaping hole in Zev’s stomach. Dimitri immediately enveloped her in his arms, sheltering her protectively while he gave her blood to recover.

“Are you all right on your own?” Dimitri asked Branislava.

She nodded. “If we need anything, I’ll call. Thank you, Skyler. Go have fun with your wolves.”

“Before you go,” Zev said. “How do we find out if the things we suspect about my grandmother and mother are true?”

“Mikhail, of course. He can ask the ancients.” Dimitri lifted his hand and, one arm around Skyler, left the room.

Zev made a move to sit up, but Branislava kept a hand on his chest. He capitulated, but he didn’t like lying there, not if they were going to have a serious discussion about their relationship. He placed his hand over hers, holding her captive.

“I know it feels like you have to do your duty and keep me from acting like a wolf among sheep, but, Branka, I have great control and there is no need for you to feel trapped.”

“Our souls belong together. When you say the words of the binding ritual to me, we will be tied together for all eternity and there will be no going back,” she explained. “You have the power. I would not be able to leave you.”

He rubbed her arm, from the back of her hand to her elbow, his touch soothing. “Mon chaton féroce. I do not believe in cages. No matter how much I want you with me, you have to want that same thing. You don’t know me, Branka.”

She nodded. “I thought that until I spent time inside your mind. You’re a good man, but a little frightening. The idea of being with someone so dominant is daunting.” She touched her breast beneath her clothing. “Carpathians do scar, no matter what is said, if the wound is bad enough and isn’t healed in time.”

Her lashes swept down and she looked away from him. His heart turned over. He continued to stroke her arm. He couldn’t hold her. He couldn’t kiss away her fears or take away the fact that they were lifemates and she knew she was tied to him no matter what reassurances he gave her. He couldn’t imagine being in her shoes. Despite the comfort of his pack, he had always been fiercely independent, even as a boy. His dominant nature would never allow anyone else to have control over him, yet this woman who feared his power over her held his fate in her hands. It was a two-way street.

“Branka,” he said gently. Intimately—even tenderly, when he wasn’t aware he could feel such an emotion for anyone. “Look at me. Really look at me. I have been in many battles with rogue packs. Too many times I fought alone and I’ve been wounded time and again. My body is a road map. I’m not afraid of scars on your body or mine. Stop worrying about our future together. Let’s take one day at a time.”

She was silent a long moment and then she smiled at him. “Night. We’ll take one night at a time.”

4

Zev woke to the sound of the rain pouring down. A song of nature. He wondered how he could hear it when he was so deep beneath the ground, under the house that was intended for his home. He didn’t want to move or open his eyes. He held Branislava in his arms and in the first instant of waking, with the music of the rain and the warmth of her soft body curled next to him, the moment was perfect.

He inhaled the scent of her hair, all that soft silk falling over him. He was naked, skin to skin with her, and he recognized her as he never had before. His body was spooned around hers, protectively, because, even in his deepest sleep, that was his strongest instinct. One thigh was over hers and in his palm he held her breast, a soft, sweet mound that rose and fell with every breath she took.

She was awake, he realized, and just like him, she didn’t move. She didn’t want to chance disturbing that perfect moment, either. He kept his eyes closed, savoring just holding her. He could feel the subtle beat of the earth’s heart beneath him, reaching toward the water pouring down to feed the veins and arteries that ran throughout the land nourishing all life. They were part of the planet’s cycle of life.

“I spent two years allowing the earth to comfort me,” Branislava whispered. “I lay listening to her heart calling out to me. The warmth she provided made me feel whole. I was so cold in the ice cave. Tatijana could just absorb the cold, but I couldn’t. Here, beneath the earth, I feel whole. I’m warm and safe. I didn’t think anything else could make me feel that way.” She moved, turning her head to look at him over her shoulder. “I was wrong.”

He brushed his lips over the top of her head. “Safe isn’t living, Branka.”

She smiled and settled back, her head pillowed on his arm. “No, it isn’t. I heard you, that night we first met. I knew my lifemate was close just by the drumming of the earth’s heart. Mother Earth woke me, nudged me to embrace life. There was an insistence when I woke and I knew. I wasn’t going to join the celebration even though I knew Tatijana wanted me there, but I could already feel you so close. My soul reached for yours.”

She made her confession in her soft, musical voice, the rain her orchestra. He could listen to her for hours, that soft turn of her voice, those perfect notes that somehow reached inside of him and wrapped around his heart.

“But you came.” He nuzzled the top of her head gently with his chin. Her soft hair got caught in the rough shadow along his jaw, weaving them together just as she had woven their spirits. “Knowing what you were facing, you still came, and you danced with me. That was brave of you.”

“I wanted to see you, Zev. I wanted to touch you and to feel how I would respond.”

“What did you learn?”

“That I could be safe with you.”