Seven
1083 Words
The fire was nothing more than a muted glow, its smoke curling lazily into the cool night air. Selena sat across from him, knees drawn to her chest, arms wrapped tightly around herself.
Nali didn’t seem to need the heat. He sat half in shadow, his head bent slightly, sharpening one of his long, curved blades with slow, deliberate motions. The sound of steel on stone scraped softly through the silence.
Every time she glanced at him, the faint light caught on the angles of his face, the sharp line of his jaw, the faint hollow beneath his cheekbone. The storm had left his hair damp, strands clinging stubbornly near his temple.
The mark above her collarbone pulsed again, making her shift uncomfortably. She tugged her jacket higher, though she knew it didn’t hide it from him. It never did.
He noticed anyway. She could tell without even looking directly at him, there was a subtle shift, his movements slowing, his head tilting just slightly in her direction.
When he spoke, his voice was low and even, but there was weight in it.
“Don’t wander from camp.”
She frowned. “I wasn’t planning to.”
“I’m not making a suggestion,” he said, still running the stone along the blade. “I’m telling you.”
Her brow knit. “Why? You’ve let me walk around before.”
He looked up then, and she almost wished he hadn’t. His gaze pinned her in place so cool, unyielding, but with something darker just beneath it.
“That was before.”
She swallowed. “Before what?”
His eyes flicked, deliberately, toward her collarbone. “Before you were marked.”
Her pulse jumped. “You make it sound like I’m some… possession.”
He didn’t blink. “You are.”
The words landed hard, like a punch she hadn’t seen coming. Her mouth went dry. “You can’t just—”
“I can,” he said simply, cutting her off. “And I will.”
The blade caught the firelight as he set it aside. He leaned forward slightly, elbows resting on his knees, voice softening but losing none of its intensity. “That mark ties you to me. It means I can find you anywhere, no matter the distance. It means I’ll feel it if you’re in danger. It also means that if something or someone tries to take you from me…” He let the sentence trail off, but the sharp glint in his eyes finished it for him.
She forced herself to hold his gaze, though her chest felt tight. “That sounds a lot like a threat.”
“It’s a promise,” he said.
Her breath caught not because of the words, but because of how steady he was when he said them. There was no anger in his tone, no raised voice. Just quiet certainty, the kind that didn’t need to shout to be dangerous.
She shifted, hugging her knees tighter. “I’m not your prisoner.”
“You’re not,” he agreed. “But you are mine.”
The mark throbbed again, almost in time with his words, and she hated the way her body reacted to heat unfurling low in her stomach, a strange ache blooming alongside her irritation.
She tried to focus on the fire instead, but the weight of his presence pressed against her awareness. It was the bond, she told herself. Just the bond.
He leaned back, his gaze never leaving her. “There are things in these woods that would kill you before you even heard them coming. And there are things that would take longer, make you wish they’d killed you.”
Her throat tightened. “You’re saying this to scare me.”
“I’m saying this because it’s true.”
The fire popped softly between them. When he spoke again, his voice dropped lower. “You’ve seen how I track prey. How fast I can close a distance. Do you really think I wouldn’t do the same if you tried to leave?”
Selena looked away quickly, but not before she saw the faint curl of his mouth, not quite a smile, but close enough to unnerve her.
The mark pulsed again, harder this time, and she swore she felt a whisper of something in her mind, his presence, brushing faintly against her thoughts. She jerked upright, heart thudding.
He noticed. Of course he noticed. “Stay where I can see you,” he said softly, like it was the most reasonable request in the world.
Her hands curled into fists against her knees. “And if I don’t?”
That almost-smile came back, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Then I’ll come get you.”
And the way he said it quiet, certain, and unshakably true, made her believe him.
They broke camp at first light. He set a pace just slow enough that she could keep up without complaining, but never so slow she could pull ahead. The bond hummed between them like an invisible tether, tugging faintly every time she drifted a step too far.
By midday, she tested it, pretending to stop and adjust her pack while he moved on ahead. She counted silently. Seven seconds. That’s all it took for him to turn his head sharply, eyes locking on her.
The look he gave wasn’t angry, but it froze her in place all the same. When he came back to her, his voice was quiet. “Don’t do that again.”
She bit back the instinct to snap at him. The mark pulsed warmly against her collar, like it was reinforcing his words, and she hated the way it felt almost… right. Almost like part of her didn’t want to pull away at all.
That night, as they camped near the edge of a cliffside, the forest spread below them in dark, endless waves, she caught him watching her again. Not in the cold, assessing the way he sometimes did but with an intensity that made her skin prickle.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked before she could stop herself.
His answer came without hesitation.
“Because you’re mine.”
The words sent another pulse through the mark, hotter, stronger and she realized with a jolt that her heartbeat had matched its rhythm.
She turned away, but it didn’t matter.
She could feel his gaze on her long after she closed her eyes.
TO BE CONTINUED...
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