Undying Hope. Emma Weylin
with tears slipping down her cheeks. Nikon pressed up against her side in an effort to offer comfort. Her delicate body trembled as she turned away from him. Her voice wobbled on the first note, “Good night, Quinn.”
“Haven.” Her name rolled out with a gritty edge.
She went perfectly still. “Y-yes?”
He moved up behind her. “You’re crying.”
“I’m fine.”
“Look at me.”
She hesitated for a moment before she turned around and tilted her head back.
He tried to look impassive, but his arms opened. “Come here.”
She hesitated again. Those beautiful eyes peered into his, assessing him and his intent before she walked into him. Donovan’s arms closed around her as her body curled in against him. The cotton of his shirt became immediately damp with tears. Her slight body kept trembling, but her crying was soft.
“She’s leaking more!” The treòir’s alarm sent pounding through his head.
“She needs this.” Donovan kept the response measured. He wasn’t about to pretend to understand why women cried after they were safe. He just knew they did. The treòir wasn’t exactly sure it believed him, but the throbbing headache subsided. He stroked a hand down her silky hair. “Shh. You’re all right. I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere.”
After a few moments, she finally relaxed against him. Using his power to put her to sleep would have been easier, but Donovan found he couldn’t make himself cheat her of his time. She needed to cry first, and he’d be damned if she used any shoulder but his for the rest of her life when she needed one. She was his lifebond. That was the only answer he had for the treòir’s behavior and the course of emotion hammering through his system.
When the tears stopped, Haven pulled back. Her eyes were rimmed red. “I, um, well, I think I need a shower.”
“All right.” He tried to get himself to leave, but his body refused to move, and this time the treòir wasn’t preventing him.
“I will stay with her,” Nikon whispered to him. The large black wolf moved to stand guard next to her and nodded toward the door.
His heart constricted. Once again, he was struck by the image of his wolf protecting a woman with more beauty than he could recall to memory. He ran his hand over Nikon’s head and then fled the room.
“You ran away from her!” the treòir yelled at him.
Donovan ground his teeth together. “Hell yes! She doesn’t need me mauling her while she sleeps.”
Treòir considered his human’s words and conceded. “The sooner we bond to her, the better off we’ll be.”
Donovan wasn’t sure he agreed. Bonding could be the single most dangerous thing an Undying could face.
Chapter 4
Donovan stalked through the penthouse. He wasn’t about to avoid his responsibility to his lifebond. Everything else was the problem. Giving up his treòir was shirking on his responsibility as the Cadeyrn of the Undying people. They needed their leader, and they wouldn’t be able to survive if he turned into another Kyros. He would also turn into a meirlock if his lifebond died. Only this time, there wouldn’t be anyone strong enough to take him out. The Originals hadn’t survived the time-shift.
Not one single freaking bonding in the last fifty years since the Undying had arrived in this time. When they needed hope the most, he had to be the one to connect with his lifebond. It had taken him those precious years to settle his people after the cataclysm. A portion of the Undying had survived, the rest were dead or missing. Kyros had touched the Book of Avalon because Donovan had failed. Now, when his people should have the most hope for the future, they were going to lose him.
His choices were to either give up his treòir or leave his people to a monster no one would be able to defeat. Neither of which he liked. Giving up his power assured Haven would die at some point of natural causes, regardless if she converted into an Undying or not. Lifebonds did not survive long past the expiration of their mate. Turning into a meirlock was too horrible a fate to even think about.
He made his way into the kitchen to snag a beer out of the refrigerator. He’d have to put grocery shopping on the list of things to do tomorrow—that was if Nikon allowed Haven to cook on the modern contraptions. His ability with the damn things always ended in a spectacular explosion of food and fire with a large mess to clean up. The catastrophes had led to the black wolf banning food that needed to be prepared in any way in the penthouse.
He closed his eyes and leaned against the counter top. Haven changed everything. She should be his hope. His salvation. Damn it, she was. He just had to figure out how to get there. The first step in getting there was talking to his brother. His mind brushed up against his youngest brother’s. “Riordan. You busy?”
“No. What’s up?” The response was groggy, as if he’d just woken the man up.
Donovan paused for a moment to let himself feel what he was about to say. “I found her. I—I have my lifebond, brother.”
“Your lifebond? You found your lifebond?” The excitement in Riordan’s tone couldn’t be missed.
Donovan had to smile a little. “Yes. Get your ass over here because I need a hell of a lot of information I was too young to receive until just a little bit ago.”
Riordan laughed quietly. The joke was customary amongst the males of his kind. There was information they could not obtain until they had their lifebond, no matter what age they achieved. “Yeah. It’s amazing how quickly we come of age. Anything else I need to know before I get there?”
Donovan waited a beat as he thought. “Yeah, don’t tell anyone else just yet, and I’ve got a fourteen-year-old Earth Warrior here, too.”
“Got it. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
He finished his beer and tossed the bottle into the recycling bin before getting out a package of meat to thaw for the wolves.
Haven’s scream from the second floor rattled his teeth. His treòir’s power spiked, causing the building to shake as he tore off to get upstairs. Nikon was digging at the space under the bathroom door. Before he managed to break the door down, Donovan discovered it was unlocked. He burst into the bathroom to see Haven’s willowy frame huddled in the corner of the tub. He carefully pulled open the transparent curtain. “Haven?”
“B-b-blood!” she wailed.
He cocked his head to find where the blood was coming from, and it was then he saw the streak of ungodly pink trailing from her hair down to the drain.
He set his jaw and nodded once. He could do this. He just had to pretend she wasn’t naked or wet, and he could do this without turning into a pig. He kicked off his shoes and got in with her, fully clothed. She looked up at him with fear in her eyes, and he reached down and pulled her up.
“Close your eyes,” he murmured and was surprised when she did. He did the bare minimum of what was needed to get the blood out of her hair and off her face before he wrapped himself around her. The water ran cold before she shoved away from him and darted out of the tub. She grabbed a towel off the bar and wrapped it around her. Her eyes were wide as she stared up at him. “I was fine.”
His brow shot up as his arms folded over his chest. “Really?”
She tightened the terry cloth around her as her head bobbed. “Yes. I like to freak out over blood in the shower alone.”
“Right,” he said as he took another towel off the bar and wrapped it around her shoulders before he guided her back into the bedroom. He wasn’t about to invade her privacy further by rummaging through