“Where’s Syn?” I ask, turning my attention to my hands clasped tightly in my lap. “I didn’t see her with the others.”

I sent her away.

“Why?”

He takes a deep breath in through his nose, forcing his eyes from my face to the far edge of the pool. It’s too dangerous for her to be close to you. I refuse to allow her to complete the bond between us.

“Oh.”

My throat tightens at the unexpected wave of rejection his words cause, and I fold my arms around my middle as a cold chill runs down my spine. Tears spring to my eyes as the wild thing beneath my skin rears up, filling my ears with her haunting screams of wrath and outrage, demanding Kaebl retract his statement. So this is why he’s been keeping his distance and sleeping in a different room. Because he doesn’t want to bond with me.

Noticing my expression—or perhaps the violent thoughts rushing through my mind—Kaebl reaches out, placing his hand on the stone just next to my thigh. I didn’t mean it like that, Dagny.

“Then what did you mean?”

He shakes his head, his golden eyes filling with heated desperation. I want nothing more than to bond with you—to hold you and to worship you and to connect with you as the others do. But it’s too dangerous.

“Why?” I demand. “Nothing happened when I bonded with any of the others. If anything, it made them stronger. You don’t have to lie to me. If you don’t want me, all you have to do is be hones⁠—”

Do not ever… Kaebl’s voice enters my mind as a growling threat, cutting off my words and sucking the oxygen from my lungs. Don’t you dare say that I do not want you. You are all I think about, all I dream of and more. If there were no sun, I would look at you to brighten my skies. If there were no wind, just your smile would be enough to keep me soaring through the atmosphere. There is no part of me that does not want to be completely, irrevocably linked to you. You are my mate, Dagny—our mate—and the only reason I have the strength to stay away from you is because it’s the only thing keeping you alive.

“Kaebl…” I’m at a loss for words, the violent whooshing in my ears making it impossible to string a single line of thought together. “Kaebl, I⁠—”

Please… Don’t. His eyes fill with sorrow as he inches his pinky toward my thigh, stopping just before it brushes my skin. The sound of my name rolling off your tongue is torture. It’s everything I’ve ever wanted, and everything I can never have.

“Why not?” I ask, my heart thudding into my throat. “Why is it so dangerous?”