VARUL
The silence that followed my words was loud enough to drown out the raging blizzard outside.
Sigrun stared up at me, her soft lips parted in a breathless gasp that hit my raw senses like dry grass on an open flame.
Her green eyes—so bright against the stark, cold stone of my study—swam with a mixture of disbelief and an unmistakable longing.
*Mine,* Siren chanted in my skull, his voice a deep, vibrating rumble that shook my very bones. *Claim her. Mark her. Tear down the walls and take what the Goddess gave us.*
For a solid month, I had played the part of the disciplined, patient king. I had kept my distance, lying awake in a separate cold bed, enduring an agonizing, hollow s****l frustration that felt like claws scraping against the inside of my ribs. I had done it to protect
