Obsession Untamed (Feral Warriors #2)(71)

Kougar came over to them and clasped Tighe’s shoulder. “Never give up.” His enigmatic gaze swung slowly to her. “Worthy,” he murmured, with a single nod of the head, then turned and followed Lyon.

Tighe’s hand squeezed her arm. “Was I hallucinating, or did Kougar just call you worthy?”

“You tell me.”

She felt the stiffness enter his muscles a second before he released her, gripped her shoulders, and turned her to face him. His eyes took on a light she wasn’t sure she liked. “What did you do?”

Delaney stared at him, her brows drawing together. “You know what I did. I led you out of the dark, just as you did me.”

His hands tightened on her shoulders until his grip was almost painful. “I could have killed you.”

She stared at him, her temper flaring. “Well, you’re welcome.”

“I mean it,” he growled. “Don’t ever do something like that again.”

She kicked him in the shin with her bare toes. “Twice you risked everything to find me. Twice. Don’t you dare get on my ass about helping you.”

“I’m immortal. You’re human!”

“As everyone keeps reminding me! I’m made of flesh and blood, not soap bubbles. I might not heal as fast as you do, but I do heal. Don’t try to lock me away to protect me, Tighe. I won’t have it.”

She stilled, her words hanging in the air. She’d yelled at him about what not to do the next time, but it didn’t look like there was going to be a next time.

“Oh, Tighe.” Her eyes filled with tears.

With a growl, Tighe hauled her into his arms, burying his face in her hair with a shudder that shook the entirety of his big body. For long, long minutes he held her like that, shudders rocking him at regular intervals, while she clamped her arms around him and held him tight.

“I’m not mad at you, D. It’s not you, though goddess, when I think of what I could have done to you like that…”

“I was so scared I wouldn’t be able to reach you.” Her voice broke. “I don’t want to lose you.”

The tears got away from her, and Tighe held her as she cried, stroking her back and running his hand over her hair.

“Don’t cry, D. Kougar and Hawke will come up with something. We’ll beat that bloodless sucker, yet.”

But there was no real belief in his tone. Nothing but bleak despair.

When she got control, he pulled back until he could see her face, then cupped her cheek in his warm palm. “Are you really okay? I had a vision, D. I saw him stripping you, tying you down. Touching you.”

His words brought back that nightmare. Delaney shivered, the chills rippling over her skin.

Tighe pulled her against him, cradling her head. “I’ve never felt so helpless in my life. You were right there, and I couldn’t help you. I couldn’t reach you.”

“I’m okay. I knew you’d come for me.”

“Always.”

But always spoke of a future they didn’t have.

How could this be it? How could this man, whom she’d just found, whom she loved, be dying? The weight of her grief was almost more than she could bear.

Chapter Twenty-six

Tighe held Delaney in his arms, deep in the bowels of Feral House, his heart filling with a pressure he wasn’t sure he’d survive even if they did manage to kill his clone in time.

Was this love? He’d thought he’d been in love once before, but now he wondered.

Was this what real love felt like? This feeling that he couldn’t breathe? The certainty that before he’d found her he’d never breathed? Never lived? And now he might only have hours.

Hours.

The knowledge echoed through his mind like the death knell it was. For the first time in his long, long life he faced true death. There had been threats to his life before, certainly. Mage battles. Draden attacks that for short periods of time had gone south. But he’d always known he’d prevail. And he always had.

He was immortal.

Face-to-face, he’d be able to defeat the clone, he was sure of it. But his enemy fought from the shadows and behind the faces of the people he loved.

This time he might well lose.

The worst part was, for the first time since he was marked all those centuries ago, he had a strong reason to live. To watch over Delaney as she lived her life. To do whatever he could to make her short years safer, richer, even if she insisted on returning to her own world with no memory of him. He’d visit her in his cat form, then once she was asleep, he’d cloud her mind and hold her. She wouldn’t be lonely. He’d make certain she was never lonely.

Slowly he pulled back, framing her face as he clung to her gaze, reassuring himself she was really in his arms, shaken anew by how scared he’d been that he’d never hold her like this again. Emotion caught in the back of his throat, burning a line all the way to his eyes.

“Goddess, D, when I realized you were missing, I nearly died.” A shudder wracked his body. “When I finally figured out where you were, I heard you scream. I thought I was too late.”

She brushed her cheek against his chest. “He touched my head with his hands. It felt like he poured acid in me. I really thought he’d planted something in me, but the Shaman couldn’t find anything but shadows.”