He cupped my face, his thumb brushing my cheek. "No. You'll stay here."
"I'm not some fragile thing to be locked away"
His kiss cut me off, fierce and desperate, his fingers tangling in my hair. When he pulled back, his eyes burned with something I'd never seen before.
"Stay alive," he ordered. "That's all I ask."
And then he was gone, vanishing into the night with the others, leaving me standing alone in the suddenly too-quiet hall.
The fire crackled. The wind howled.
And for the first time since I'd come to Bloodmoon Keep, I was afraid.
Not for myself.
For him.
For the alpha who had become my heart.
For my husband.
The word settled in my chest, warm and right, even as the world outside prepared to burn.
The night the Shadows came for Riven, the moon wept crimson.
