The heavy, exhaustive sleep that followed the binding of our souls was the deepest I had known in years. But as the fire in the hearth dwindled to gray ash, the instinctive paranoia of a hidden royal woke me before the sun could even clear the horizon.
My body ached with a profound, completely new exhaustion, tingling with the residual heat of Draven’s touch. Beside me, his chest rose and fell in a slow, deep rhythm, his heavy arm still draped possessively over the indentation where I had lain. The midnight-black fur blanket was tangled around his waist, exposing the broad expanse of his scarred back.
Gently, millimeter by millimeter, I slipped out from beneath his weight. My inner wolf whimpered at the loss of contact, but my rational mind was screaming. The high-altitude herbal tonic m
