Ronan
The bond goes quiet like a heart cut from the chest.
Not gone, gods, don’t even think about gone, just muffled, as if someone packed snow into my lungs and told me to breathe anyway.
The sudden absence leaves a ringing behind my eyes. I can hear my own pulse like a drum, feel my wolf rake its claws down the inside of my ribs.
Loran is on the ground where we found him, half-conscious and making the mistake of still breathing. I put my boot on his sternum and lean until his ribs creak. Eli f****d him up properly before they dragged him away.
“Where is he?”
His split lip trembles. There’s a laugh in it. “You’re too late.”
I take his laugh. Fingers around his throat, thumb pressing where his pulse flutters thin as a moth wing. His eyes bulge. Not enough. I want to crush. I want to
