Page 178 of Wolfkissed
“Where are we going?” I ask, although I don’t expect an answer. I do get a pulse of warmth where I can feel Valen in my chest. A reassuring prod.
We stop in front of a stone façade. A rope hangs beside the door.
Darian places his forepaws on the wall and grabs the rope with his teeth, tugging. A bell tolls inside.
The door opens, and a tall, broad-shouldered man with tousled black hair and silver in his pointed ears stands in the opening. He’s frowning, but his expression clears when he sees us.
“Lads, you’re finally back. Come on inside.”
It looks like Valen has brought me to his home.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-FOUR
VALERIAN
Home.We are back. It’s hard to believe it. It feels as if I’ve been away for years, not mere weeks.
I don’t feel the usual yearning, though. Probably because I’m carrying my real home on my back.
Rosamund.
Aeric opens the door, and I almost leap on him to hug him. I see the moment he recognizes us and relaxes.
“Come in,” he says, and we trot into my ancestral home. I make straight for the lit fireplace. She’s cold, and I need her warmed up quickly, before she gets sick.
She sits on my back for a moment longer, though. “Sorry,” she whispers. “I can’t feel my legs.”
With a growl of concern, I lower myself onto the rug and force a shift so I can properly take care of her. It fucking hurts, but slowly my body changes.
She slides off me and settles on the rug beside me. My heart rate spikes with stupid panic because I can’t move properly yet, my limbs twitching and my face aching, and she’s not touching me.
I need her touch.
As if feeling it, she puts her arms around my neck and rests her head against my side.
Instant relief.
Whether it’s the bond or my love and concern for her, I can’t tell. Can’t tell the two apart. She is my fate and my pleasure, my mate and my beloved. She’s my entire fucking world, and with her body curled against mine, I close my eyes and allow myself to relax. Rest. And loosen the wolf part of me, to allow my body to complete the shift.
I wake up a few times to voices, but they are familiar and safe. That fact seeps through my consciousness, calming me down.
A blanket has been thrown over us. I make out Darian and Konstam a few feet away, curled up and recovering under more blankets.
This isn’t an uncommon occurrence, waking up naked with my friends strewn around on the rugs, while the family chitchats in the background as we return from a shift.
What is new is the delicious feel of a woman curled against me.
And not just any woman.
Rosie.
Finding her in the plain right before the asshole lord’s men got her, carrying her through meadow and field, over hill and rise, and then up the mountain all the way here, to my home, now seems like a dream. The entire time I was away from home feels like a dream, from the moment I was put inside a cage, to running away with her and guiding her to the manor where that asshole abused her.
Waking up from one has never felt better because she is still here. It’s real.
She chose to come with me.
She said she loves me.
