THANK YOU WEBNOVEL! (For real!) If you didn't see it, this week it was officially announced that Aaryn and Elreth won a Bronze Trophy in the 2021 AllNovelFull Spirity Awards! I am so thankful and surprised. This is a serious compliment.
Thank you to YOU for being here, and for supporting this book. If you hadn't loved these characters so much, they wouldn't have made it this far. So thank you for helping (and Aaryn & Elreth) reach this point!
Here's praying the added exposure will bring us a lot of new friends to share this journey! (This message added after publication so you aren't charged for the words)
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RIKA
Heart pounding, Rika slowly, slowly lowered the long water can to the ground to free her hand, then took a slow step back, sinking her weight on her knees, ready to run or fight.
There would be no hiding her fear—even she could hear her breath rushing in and out of her throat.
Then the eyes blinked and shifted and the massive male Anima seemed to just materialize out of the darkness into the moonlight, his long limbs thick with muscle, shoulders so broad he'd have to turn sideways through the narrow doors in her apartment.
Despite the cold, he wore only leather trousers—no shoes—and a long-sleeved linen shirt that clung to his biceps, pushed up on his forearms, open at the neck, revealing the hollow between his collarbones and the beginning of the flat planes of his chest. His face was all square, shadowed jaw, angular cheekbones, and heavy brows. His thick, dark hair looked like it needed a cut, just beginning to curl around his ears and nape. Or maybe he liked it that way.
It certain suited him.
His narrowed eyes, still glinting in the moonlight, never left hers as he stepped closer, making no sound despite the dead leaves and twigs on the ground.
He was a massive man, everything about him thick and broad—from those shoulders, to his thighs that the leather pants clung to like a second skin, so she could see every line and ripple of muscle that made him appear as if he were made of nothing but strength.
When he was fully revealed in the moonlight, her breath whooshed out of her as if she'd been struck.
"Gar! You scared the sheet out of me!"
She stepped toward him, but he shook his head with a gesture for silence. She froze on the spot—could he hear her colleagues? Had one of them followed her?
But suddenly his hands were in her hair and lips found hers, his breath hot and rushing on her cheek.
She whimpered with relief, but her heart just raced faster as she plunged her fingers into his hair, arched her back and pulled him into the kiss as he loomed over her, one arm at her lower back, bending himself almost in half to keep their bodies close.
"I thought… something happened…" she gasped against his lips between kisses. "You said two days… it's been over a week!"
A low growl puttered in his massive chest that vibrated against her and she clung.
She'd found his sounds shocking—and arousing—from the very first time they met, even before things got… personal. But now, with his solid warmth around her and that iron bar of an arm holding her, that heady shimmering in her skin felt like proof that he was real, that she hadn't made him up, and that he hadn't abandoned her or been killed. For the first time in over a week she could breathe.
"Gar—"
He shushed her and finally pulled his head back to meet her eyes, drinking her in, scanning her up and down, as if he feared she'd taken an injury.
"I'm fine," she said softly, touched by his concern. "I was just scared because you didn't come back and—"
He kissed her again, then growled and shook his head. "We have to stop. There's no time to explain," he said in that deep, honeyed voice that invaded her dreams. "We have to get you out of here. Now. They're coming, Rika. They found you. They're going to take you—all of you, they think you're here to invade, so they won't let up until you've told them everything—and then they'll kill you."
Rika blinked, her heart hammering even faster. "What? I can't—"
"Rika, listen to me: The Guards are on their way and they are Anima. You won't even know they're here until they take you one by one. You have to come with me. Right now. You have to tell Elreth what you know. You can't stay with your… the others. They're going to get themselves killed. You can't!" he hissed urgently.
"But if I go, they'll know. They already suspect me, Gar! That has to be why they're here. They were supposed to wait until I reported in next week, but they're here and they're watching me and… Gar, if I disappear, they'll tell my bosses—and they'll kill me."
"No, they won't," he growled, his hands tightening. "I won't let them. I told you, Rika."
They stared at each other then and her heart felt… strangled.
They'd met weeks earlier—she'd gotten lost one day. She wasn't scared because she knew she'd make it back once the sun rose the next morning. But her navigation equipment had run out of battery just as darkness descended. She'd needed a place to shelter for the night and had doubled back to the cave she'd passed a few minutes earlier.
When she'd gotten inside she'd frozen, because instead of the dusty stone and creeper vines—and writhing serpents probably taking shelter among them—that she'd expected, she'd found a thick, handmade mattress, a chair, a fireplace and books.
She'd known two things immediately. The first was that this had to be something like a vacation home of an Anima. And second…
"Fudge. I have to get out of here. They're going to smell me," she'd whispered to herself.
Heart pounding, she'd turned on her heel, only to gasp as she'd run smack into that same, thick chest and golden gaze.
"Too late," a deep, husky voice said. Then he'd smiled a smile that showed his teeth.
She'd been certain she was in the grip of death that night. Instead… instead she'd discovered a cultured, intelligent and thoughtful man, self-protective to a fault, but deliciously protective of her as well. He was a little broody, and a lot wicked. And she'd fallen head over heels for him within days.
Of course, she'd never told him that. Had let things develop—reluctantly, knowing she was only setting herself up for pain. But the more she'd seen him, the more she'd begun to hope. And the more she hoped, the more she realized her work was at odds with her heart.
And suddenly… suddenly her records might not have been quite so detailed.
Suddenly she might have been just a touch pickier about what logs she wrote for her bosses. Nothing dramatic, but… clearly they'd noticed something. She was less than two months into a six month investigation and they had shown up.
So now, she stood there in the dark, warm hands and heated eyes on her, that deep voice that made her belly tingle, pleading with her to run. With him.
Run away with Gar.
And… holy shirtballs.. She wanted to.
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