~ SASHA ~

When she pushed out the car she hadn't really thought about anything except getting away from Zev and the shuddering fear coursing through her—not because he was a wolf, but because everyone in her life had been right. She'd been blinded. He wasn't who she thought he was. He hadn't loved her the way she'd loved him.

It was breaking her heart all over again and she was going to embarrass herself if she stayed in front of him. So she screamed at him to stop the car and she scrambled out of it.

But as soon as her feet hit the wet grass outside she saw the distant line of moving lights and heard the rush of cars and she pushed into a sprint.

The highway. People. Civilization.

No one turning into wolves.

She pushed so hard—so much harder than any time she'd been exercising—because she was driven by fear and anger and they were powerful motivators. Her breath was tearing in and out of her throat within seconds. Her vision began to blur, but she dashed the tears away and kept running, ignoring the pounding in her head and the sparkling at the edge of her vision.

Zev wasn't good. He wasn't her lover. He was a psychopath and a… a thing. A creature. And—

A dark shadow whipped past her on the grass, turning around in front of her to face her, his ears perked and tail lashing.

Sasha gasped and stumbled on a divot in the grass, pitching forward.

She threw her arms out with a shriek, bracing for the pain of falling headlong into the hard ground, when suddenly her arms were full of warm, naked male, pushing up and keeping her on her feet. As they staggered together her head, still pounding with her pulse, echoed with his voice.

Please, Sasha. Please don't be scared. I would never hurt you. Please.

The knot of fear and anger in her chest that had been quivering under ever-increasing tension, snapped when she smelled him again and her hands found his back.

"Shhhhh, baby, don't cry," he whispered, exactly the way he had before, and her heart and memories spun back through the years, to the days when she'd been in love and too young to know that life could never work out perfect. To the time in her life when his voice had been branded on her heart, and his touch lit up her soul.

No matter how long it had been, no matter how he looked now or what he could do, something inside her recognized him and the simultaneous joy and fear of that broke out of her throat in a sob.

She wanted to fight the way he embraced her, the tenderness with which he held her at the waist, and the soft brush of his jaw at her ear. She wanted to push away the dark strength of him that, even now, as she pressed into his chest and one of his hands fisted in her hair, felt like the only solid thing in this world, the only thing that soothed her fear.

"This… you're impossible," she cried. "This can't be!"

"I'm sorry, Sasha, I know it's a shock. But it's real. I'm real. And I'm here. And I'm so, so sorry I left you alone. I was watching, I promise. I kept you safe."

"You didn't! You left! You were gone! You—"

"Sasha, look at me," he murmured, pulling back to cup her face and force her to raise her chin and meet his glowing gaze. Then he searched her eyes, back and forth. "I never left. I was just… out of sight," he breathed. "I promise you. You're the only precious thing to me in this world. I know it was hard, and I'm so sorry. If I'd known it would come to this I wouldn't have gone. But… I never left you. Never."

He took one of her hands then and flattened it against his chest, right over his heart. "Feel me, Sasha. This is real. I know it's scary and overwhelming. But it's real."

Her hands were cold. When he put his palm over hers, pressing hers against his chest, the heat from his skin combined with the smell of him conspired to break her heart open.

She swallowed hard and stared at his chest, at that point where they touched and shook her heart. "I've waited… so long," she breathed.

His thumb at her cheek pressed up on her jaw so she'd meet his eyes again.

"Listen to me, Sasha: I'm real. I'm me. And I'm going to take care of you. You don't need to be afraid, okay? Never. I'm here now. And I'm not leaving again."

She dissolved into tears again, but buried her face in his chest, her heart singing because he was really there. And she wasn't strong enough to keep pushing him away.

He was all she'd ever wanted.

"We are s-so royally f-fucked," she said against his skin, her teeth chattering.

Zev's chuckle rumbled in his chest under her ear and lit her heart on fire.