As they brushed his skin, he rasped, “What happened?”

Didn’t he remember?

“We were attacked by a pack of natural wolves,” I rasped uncertainly. “I-I froze. You saved me.”

That was an incredibly simplistic answer, but it was all I was capable of.

He lay there, his heartbeat stronger but still weak, and I knew that even if she was healing him, it wasn’t like she was clicking her fingers and returning him to normal.

We lay there in silence, and I let him recuperate, let her work her magic on him, and only when I felt certain he was strong enough to get onto his feet, did I whisper, “Come on, let’s get you into the water. Clean you up some.”

He hummed under his breath, prompting me to look at him. He was covered in blood, his flesh torn a thousand different ways from teeth and claw marks, and his skin was ashen from what he’d endured, but he was alive.

My mouth trembled as I saw he was half dozing, and I decided to let him rest. The water would clean him up, but if he needed to sleep, then he needed to sleep.

He’d saved me. Saved us. And in turn, I’d saved him.

I got the lesson.

I did.

But I knew I’d just given a supposedly benevolent being leverage over us, and that filled me with dread.

Sabina

When I next awoke, it wasn’t on the forest floor. I wasn’t in the middle of a circle stained with blood, and it wasn’t with a slain wolf a few feet away.

It was in the clearing of the totem circle.

I didn’t remember falling asleep, but when my eyes drifted open, I felt the magic resettle into me, and when I peered up at the bright blue sky through the canopies, I saw Eli and Ethan staring at me, studying me like I was a specimen in need of evaluation.

I reared up, almost smacking into them. Their speed saved me from a headache as I gazed around, looking for Austin.

When I found him?

He was naked.

His skin was just as torn as it had been earlier.

His body reflected the fight he’d been in.

Me?

I was naked, covered in his blood, and…

Releasing a shaky sigh, I covered my face with my hands and rasped, “How long were we gone?”

“A handful of minutes,” Eli replied softly, his focus on me absolute.

“You knew we weren’t here?”

“You were here, but you were unconscious. We couldn’t wake you up.” Ethan grunted. “Scared about a thousand lives off me.”

I gulped. “We just appeared naked and bloody in the blink of an eye?”

“Pretty much,” Eli grumbled. “It happened slowly, like it was blurred, but you were half undressed one second, and then like this the next.”

His leather shoes creaked as he rocked forward, and I peeked at him, the way he was so composed when I felt anything but.

Fuck, I needed that composure.

I hurled myself at him, uncaring that I was going to soil him, unconcerned that I was covered in all kinds of crap I needed to wash off, and that I was getting him stained with all the funk. I just needed his arms around me, I needed to know that everything was going to be all right.

When he embraced me, when I was tucked in his hold, I took a deep breath and let his scent fill me.

“You scent of him. He claimed you?”

“Yes.”

“What happened?” Ethan questioned, and I saw he was kneeling beside Austin who was as still as a…

I couldn’t think it.

But fuck, he looked like he was dead!

Tears beckoned as my fear for him grew, even though I could hear his heartbeat like it was on a loudspeaker echoing in my head.

When I closed my eyes, I saw his light there, the bright orange still bouncing around, just not as much as before, like his energy was seriously depleted.

The fact that I could see him here when I hadn’t in that other place told me this was the status quo, and I hated that what had been a joyful experience was suddenly a nightmare.

And I had to go through it two more times.

Fear hit me hard, and I shuddered in Eli’s arms, whispering, “I’m scared.”

“You don’t have to be,” he said instantly, and though his strength reassured me, also, it didn’t.

He didn’t know what we’d just gone through in that place where I’d thought we were safe.

I trembled, then muttered, “You can’t keep me safe there.”

“Where?” Ethan asked, his brow furrowed as he bowed over his brother.

“To—”

“I’ll always keep you safe,” Eli insisted as he reached up, grabbed my chin, and tipped it so I was staring up at him. When his mouth connected with mine?

I moaned into his kiss because I felt it happening again.

Before the fear could overwhelm me, I was there, back in that clearing where the wolf’s corpse lay on the ground, except, at my side, Austin wasn’t injured and broken, Eli was there.

My mouth quivered as I stared around, and unlike before, I was nervous where I’d been calm.

This place had its own snakes of Eden, and I felt the loss of my innocence as much as if I’d bitten into the apple of knowledge itself.

“Where the hell are we?”

I gulped, looked at him, and muttered, “When you kissed me, you brought us here.”

“I did?” He blinked. “This isn’t a dream. I thought I was hallucinating.”

I almost wanted to laugh, but I couldn’t. Didn’t. Instead, I shuddered and pressed my hands to my face.

He was there, just like he’d been before. Almost in an instant. I shivered when his arm came around me, holding me tighter, and I let him move us away from the dead wolf, away from the place of carnage, and toward the pool.

I scented it so strongly that it was like the water was in my nose. Like I’d snorted it down by accident.

“I need to get clean,” I told him, raising my arm so I could point at the pool. “That’s where we wash up.”

I felt his confusion, his outright bewilderment, and as much as I felt bad about it, I genuinely didn’t have it in me to explain anything at the moment.

Only knowing Austin was with Ethan, knowing he’d keep him safe and that my bargain had been accepted, that by the time I returned, maybe he’d be feeling better in those few moments, stopped me from breaking down entirely.

We made it to the pool with me tucked into Eli’s embrace like I was an old woman and he needed to guide me to a chair—an analogy that reminded me far too much of how I’d felt when I had fibromyalgia and couldn’t get up out of bed without a lot of help and a lot of energy.

Shoving those thoughts aside, because they were, thankfully, in the past, I waded into the water, content when I was up to my waist in it.

I turned and grimaced when I realized Eli was in the pool up to his thighs, and he was drenched now.

Wincing, I muttered, “Sorry.”

“You never have to apologize,” was all he said, and as lovely as that was, I shook my head at him.

“That isn’t fair.”

He arched a brow. “Isn’t that for me to decide?”

His snooty tone, despite my distress, made me snort out a laugh. “You’re so arrogant sometimes,” I commented softly, my grin widening, and the fact that it could make an appearance at all was enough to blow my mind straight out of my ears.