66. Rae
RAE
Torrin stilled yet didn’t. Because his whole body vibrated, as if some phantom energy coursed through him that he couldn’t control.
As I watched him, I realized that it was the same energy I felt beneath my skin—those tiny tidal waves of zapping vibrations flowing through me. It urged me forward, wanted me to reach out, to touch the man who seemed almost animalistic in the way he moved and how he studied me.
Torrin cocked his head to the side, a predator assessing his prey.
I swallowed hard and waited. Bandit let out a growl beside me, but when Torrin’s gaze cut to her, even my familiar was silenced.
He started to prowl around me. Not moving closer but in a circle.
I rotated, not wanting to turn my back on him. Why? I wasn’t sure because it wasn’t like seeing the attack before it came would help me. A man like this—a creature like this? I would be powerless against him.
Torrin sniffed the air as if trying to catch a scent. My scent, I realized. My heart hammered against my ribs, and blood roared in my ears. If Kian were here right now, I didn’t think even he could have calmed my blood.
But there was something else. Something I felt deep inside. An unlocking. A rightness. And then I knew. Torrin was my fourth.
“Lies.” He said the word on an expulsion of air. “Tricks.” Another vicious exhale.
Crap. Apparently, my fated wasn’t so certain of our bond.
“I’m not lying.” I pulled up my sleeve to show him the mark that was his—the flower with the intricate root system.
Torrin’s nostrils flared, and his breathing picked up speed. But he hadn’t stopped moving, circling, getting closer.
I followed him, but as I caught sight of the bridge, the opening to the castle, I stilled. There they were: my other fated. Lined up in warrior garb, weapons at their sides.
This was bad. So very bad.
Torrin froze and then leaned closer, sniffing again. His blue-green eyes widened as they sparked and swirled. And then he was running, charging forward.
Everything in me stopped. Movement. Breath. My godsdamned heart.
I tried to call up my magic, but there was some invisible force field. It wasn’t like when I couldn’t feel it before. I knew it was there, but something was holding it back.
The beast was nearly on me. The men on the bridge shouted. But it was too late.
Torrin snatched me up from the ground, his head descending to my neck. I prepared for agony, for my throat to be ripped out. Instead, he shoved his face into the crook of my shoulder and…breathed.
His whole body shuddered as he held me to him.
“Is he smelling her?” Kian asked.
Torrin breathed me in again. “Fated,” he whispered reverently.
“He’s fucking marking her,” Nyx growled.
“Jesus, we aren’t wolves,” Rhys clipped.
Torrin breathed deeper, brushing his bearded face over my neck, back and forth, over and over. “Mine,” he growled, but warmth coated the word.
Slowly, my arms curled around his shoulders. I wasn’t totally sure what to do, but I began rubbing his back in soothing circles. His whole body shuddered again, and then he started…purring?
I couldn’t describe the sound and vibration any other way. It was as if he were some oversized kitten, overjoyed by the strokes to his back.
But as Torrin shifted, he caught sight of the guys.
He stiffened, the muscles beneath me turning to stone.
“Mine,” he growled. This time, there was no warmth.
“You will leave.” Torrin’s words cut through the castle, making the stone walls around us almost seem like they were shaking. “Or you will die.”
The guys braced, each of them bringing up their weapon of choice. Kian had a bo staff; Nyx, a sword; Rhys, a bow and arrow.
While I knew they wouldn’t hurt Torrin if they had another option, I also knew they would use violence if necessary. And Torrin didn’t know the whole story. I just wasn’t sure he could fully grasp it with his animalistic side in control.
He started to set me down, but I gripped his shoulders tighter. “No, no, no. You can’t hurt them.”
Torrin pulled back slightly, studying me, his head moving back and forth as if a different angle might bring new understanding.
“They’re my fated, too. I have four marks. Four fated.”
Torrin’s auburn brows pulled together in confusion as he tried to make sense of that. But then he just shook his head and tried to put me down.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
I needed something else. Something that would make him understand.
“If you hurt them, it’ll hurt me.”
Torrin stilled again, mulling that over. Then he grunted and cradled me to him.
Bandit let out a series of chatters, running forward and leaping onto my chest. She wanted to meet the final fated, too. I froze, bracing for anger, but Torrin’s mouth curved, and he nuzzled Bandit almost the way he had me.
Then he cradled me closer to him, rubbing his face against mine.
Nyx sheathed his sword, studying the scene warily. “Something tells me the Feral King doesn’t like to share.”