Chapter 1
Chapter
One
PRESENT
MILO
It wasn’t that I wanted to leave.
Because I didn’t.
But…I had a mate. A mate I knew in my gut would do anything to protect me. To keep me. And I couldn’t let what was coming get Hux or the others. We’d only just gotten free.
A roar tore through the quiet morning air. I flinched, and more hot tears leaked from my eyes. Hux knew I was gone, and he’d be coming after me. Biting my lip hard enough to break skin, I sucked in air as fast as I could and pushed my legs to go even faster.
I’d hoped for more time before he realized I wasn’t in the bedroom he’d shown me to last night.
He’d been so sweet and calm. I’d guessed from his bear form that he’d be a big man, but the reality of him was still more than I could have dreamed.
He was beautiful—tall, muscular, with a headful of dark hair, a full beard, and the bluest eye I’d ever seen.
He seemed shy about the one he was missing.
About the scars. It hurt my heart to know he’d known pain like that, and even though I’d truly wanted to tell him that, scars or no, he was lovely to me, my voice still refused to work.
Just as it had every day since I’d been taken.
“Milo!”
Crap! He was so much closer than I thought he should be. How the hell did he run that fast?
“Milo!”
Thinking quickly, I turned. If I doubled back, maybe I’d confuse him with bisecting scent trails, but as soon as I did, I saw him not twenty feet away and coming fast.
“Milo, wait!”
He looked so stricken; I didn’t have the heart to keep running. I stopped and leaned against the thick trunk of a nearby tree. Bending over, I braced my hands on my knees while I sucked in big lungfuls of air. My heart pounded, and a fresh wash of tears coated my already damp cheeks.
Hux landed on his knees beside me. Heaving in huge breaths, he reached a shaking hand toward me. “Milo?”
I shook my head. I’m sorry, I wanted to say. I stood and huffed at how tall he was, even on his knees. Sitting back on his haunches, the top of his head almost reached my shoulders.
“Why…” he started, voice stricken, before trailing off. He took another big breath and let it out slowly. The gorgeous blue of his one eye was trained on my face. “It is because…are you afraid of me? Or is it…” He gestured at the ravaged side of his face.
My eyes widened, horrified that he thought I would leave because of his scars.
Stepping forward, I shook my head hard and reached up, taking his face between my palms. I traced my thumb back and forth over the worst of the scars on his cheek, rough and uneven beneath my touch.
No, I swore with my eyes. You’re beautiful.
Incredibly, he blushed, tucking his chin. He turned his head enough to brush a soft kiss against my palm. “Then why?”
I frowned. Releasing his face, I stepped back, letting my hands fall from his face. I motioned for him to stand. Once he did, I laced the fingers of one hand through his and pulled him back toward the house.