Page 8 of Burned

One word.

“Inside,” he says.

But it’s enough to make me almost hold my tongue.

“I’m enjoying the fresh air.”

Blaze mutters something under his breath that sounds suspiciously like “Here we go.”

Lucian’s attention does not flicker.

“Inside,” he repeats.

There it is again. That tone. The one that used to make me want to defy him just to feel the consequences.

It still does.

But today, something else burns beneath it. As if he needs my obedience like air.

I glance at Rafe. “Is she alive?”

Lucian goes very still.

No one answers.

Which is enough of an answer.

The cold slips under my skin.

“Erin,” Lucian says, quieter now.

My name in his mouth is usually a chain.

Today, it feels like a warning.

I take a step back.

Not toward the cabin.

Toward the trees.

The tiniest step. Barely a thing. Petty, perhaps. Childish, definitely.

Lucian sees it.

His whole body changes.

The man disappears.

The predator takes his place.

Before I can take another breath, he moves.

Fast.

The distance between us vanishes. His hand closes around my wrist, not painful but unbreakable. Heat shoots up my arm despite the cold, my traitorous body waking to his touch.

“Do not,” he says, his voice low enough that only I hear, “take another step away from me.”