Right now, those things don’t feel important. They don’t feel like they mean anything at all. I’m drowning in him, and I want to go under.
By the time he pulls back, I’m a puddle of reckless desire and unhinged emotion, hardly capable of standing on my own.
Kian’s grip on my jaw is almost bruising as he looks deep into my eyes, a line appearing between his brows as his rugged features tighten.
“You could die,” he says gruffly, his hand holding me firmly in place so that I can’t look away. There’s an unwavering intensity in his gaze that makes his words seem even heavier. “If we go down this road, if we work together against Quinton, if we spend time together and allow the bond to truly take shape… then we’ll be doing everything my brothers and I have tried to avoid.”
My hands are still resting on his shoulders, and I slide one palm around to cup his face. My touch is less violent and rough than his, but my voice is no less intense as I reply, “I don’t care. You aren’t my enemy.”
“Are we not?” Kian says harshly, releasing my jaw and moving to step back.
I don’t let him. I tangle my fingers in his dark locks and wrap my other arm around his neck, drawing him back in.
“I thought you were, once,” I murmur. “I thought you were the people I needed to stop. But you aren’t. It’s pretty damn clear now that Quinton is the driving force behind all of this.”
He arches a brow but doesn’t try to pull away again. “Quinton causes the apocalypse?”
“Maybe. I don’t fucking know,” I admit with a bitter laugh. “We’re all just trying to figure shit out, right? But you guys are right about one thing—if you don’t do his bidding, he’ll just find someone else to do it.”
“Make someone else,” Kian adds grimly. “Create new pawns.”
I nod. “So it’s time to stop the problem at the source. Don’t you think?”
I’m not going to pretend to have all the answers. Hell, I’m not going to pretend I know what the fuck I’m doing on a day-to-day basis. But I’ve seen enough from my three ex-mates to realize they aren’t complete psychopaths. They aren’t all bad. They aren’t the monsters they think they are, or that I once saw them as.
Quinton, however, is all of those things.
He’s the one who needs to go down. Lord knows I can’t do that alone, which means I need these three shifters on my side.
And if I die in the attempt, so be it.
“Saving the world is worth dying for,” I say softly, rolling Kian’s thick hair between my fingertips. “I won’t let the earth be destroyed.”
He remains silent, staring down at me. Studying me like he can somehow see inside my soul. His palms rest on my waist, the touch so light that I almost don’t feel them, as if he’s worried I might disappear if he squeezes too hard. Which is funny, considering he just got my desire all revved up by slamming me against a tree.
But it just goes to show there’s more to him than brooding anger and brawny muscles.
Several emotions cross his stony face, although they’re nothing I can read. Then he drops his forehead to mine, his eyes so close to my own that I feel like I might burn alive in the fire of them.
“I promise to protect you. I won’t let you die.”
With that pronouncement, Kian shoves away from me and stalks off into the darkness, leaving me staring after him.