Wulfe Untamed (Feral Warriors #8)(56)

Strong, slender arms wrapped around him from behind as a soft body pressed against his back, filling him with a tenderness he thought might crush him.

“While Liesel waited for me, three young human males found her. Even a Therian female is as strong as a human male, and Liesel knew how to fight.” His mouth twisted wryly. “The girl hadn’t possessed an ounce of caution. When the males appeared, she’d likely welcomed them as friends until they’d proved they had less friendly sport in mind. Then she undoubtedly fought like a wildcat. When I found her . . .” He had to suck in a breath against the stark picture that still throbbed in his mind six centuries later. “She was still conscious. Her only words, ‘I cut his face. He cut mine more.’ Goddess, but he’d cut her, Natalie. They were just shallow cuts, but he’d slashed her everywhere, every which way. And not just cuts. He’d hit her repeatedly, shattering her nose. The blood . . .”

He loosened Natalie’s grip on him and turned within the circle of her arms, needing to face her. “You can see exactly what he did to her by looking at me. I was desperate to make it up to her, so I used my gift. She was so pretty, Natalie. All I could think about was that I couldn’t be the reason she lost her beauty. I took wound after wound, feeling the burning cuts erupting all over my face, then the misery of her broken nose. Finally, I got them all. With the hem of my tunic, I wiped the blood from her face, once more as lovely as it had been at noontide. For one perfect moment, she opened her eyes and looked at me with such sorrow. And then she died.”

Natalie’s brows furrowed. “Why?”

“They’d raped her. She’d hemorrhaged. I never even thought to look, never noticed that she was lying in a pool of blood, that her skirts were soaked with it. While I’d been intent only on restoring her beauty, she’d bled to death.”

“Could you possibly have healed internal wounds?”

“I don’t know. It doesn’t matter because I never even tried. I’d sought only to preserve her beauty.”

“I don’t believe that.”

“I was vain, Natalie. I was full of my own beauty and strength and self-importance. And the goddess punished me for it, turning me into a monster none could stand the sight of.”

He pulled away from her, unable to bear her sorrowful gaze. “I didn’t learn. There you were, so beautiful, even with that wound, but I couldn’t handle it. I couldn’t let you suffer. So I took your injury and made you a pawn of evil.”

He felt her hand on his back again, as if she hadn’t heard a word he said. He shuddered beneath her touch, hating it. Needing it.

“Wulfe, turn around.” Natalie’s words were so quiet, so gentle, he had to close his eyes against the aching tenderness of them. Slowly, he did as she asked, forcing himself to meet her gaze. In those gray depths, he found the same quiet gentleness he’d felt in her touch and heard in her voice.

She reached up as if to press her hands against his cheeks again, but he grabbed her wrists and stopped her.

“You didn’t hear anything I said.”

A sad smile breached her mouth. “I heard everything you said and much you didn’t say. I heard the story of a young man who knowingly destroyed his own handsome face in order to try to help a young woman he had only a passing interest in.”

“I let her die.”

“You didn’t know she was dying. You had no idea she’d been raped.”

“I should have. Her clothes were torn, her arms were scratched and bruised. I should have.”

“Maybe subconsciously you suspected, but such a fate for a virgin, one you cared about, was more than you could wrap your mind around, so you healed the wounds you could see. You tried, Wulfe. You sacrificed everything to try to save her.”

She pulled her hands out of his softening grip and reached for his cheeks again, and this time he didn’t stop her. “You view your scars as punishment for what you failed to prevent, marks proclaiming your guilt. I see them as marks of compassion, a reflection of the selfless nature of your soul.”

“It was my fault she died.”

“It was the fault of the men who attacked her. The only mistake you made was in missing an appointment, an assignation. If you’d believed she might come to harm in those woods, you wouldn’t have let her meet you there. You’d have escorted her out there.”

It was true. “The humans never came that far into our woods. Ever, until that day.” And they never did again. He’d tracked them down, every one.

“Exactly. The very fact that you’ve taken that guilt and owned it for so long proves what a good, unselfish man you really are.”

He shook his head even as her fingers traced the ruined shape of his mouth.

“You are the kindest, most gentle, most extraordinary man I’ve ever known.”

Wulfe stared at her. She didn’t understand. How could she be watching him with such softness in her eyes after what he’d told her? His hands found her waist, whether to push her away, or hold on to her, he wasn’t sure. But the next thing he knew, he was pulling her closer, needing her closer.

Natalie smiled and continued to stroke his face, her fingers tracing his crooked nose. “You’re a part Daemon, shape-shifting immortal. How do you even exist? Yet I’m so glad you do.”

“You’d be safer if I didn’t.”