Galen's boots had been gone a full minute before I let myself breathe again.
My palm was still bleeding from the cut cable, and the wind made it sting like a bastard.
I told myself the shaking was only the cold, because the other reason was worse.
I turned to leave, and my boot came down on the wet stone where his hands had just been.
The rail was old iron, eaten thin by salt, and it bent under my weight like paper.
Then there was nothing under me but thirty feet of black water and the gates that drowned my parents.
A hand clamped around my wrist and yanked me back hard enough to wrench my whole shoulder.
Galen: I have got you. Stop fucking fighting me.
His arm came around my ribs and hauled me against a chest as solid as the wall.
Then the bond hit.
It came up through his fingers into my blood, hot as a coal, and every inch of me pulled toward him.
My eyes went hot and bright, and I could not stop it.
Galen: There it is.
Galen: You feel that too, mate. Do not lie to me.
I shoved at his chest with my bloody hand and got maybe an inch of space.
Aria: Get off me. You do not get to touch me.
Galen: You were one step from the drop. Say thank you.
Aria: Go to hell.
He walked me backward until the old stone pressed between my shoulder blades.
Galen: Careful with that mouth. It is the only reason I am not carrying you off this wall tonight.
Aria: Touch my brother and I will kill you myself. I swear it.
Galen: I do not need the boy. I have you right here.
He kissed me hard, with no asking in it, one hand in my braid and the other flat on the stone beside my head.
It tasted like salt and my own blood, and it was punishment as much as hunger.
I should have bitten him.
My hands grabbed two fistfuls of his coat and dragged him in tight, and my mouth answered his like it had been waiting all night.
His hand slid under my shirt and spread warm and rough over my ribs.
Galen: You are cold as shit and shaking. Tell me that is the wind.
Aria: It is the wind.
Galen: Liar.
He pushed his thigh between my knees and rocked me against the sea wall, slow and mean.
A sound came out of my mouth that I will never admit to.
Galen: That is it. Let me hear it.
His mouth was at my throat and his hand was under my shirt, and I was rolling my hips on his leg like I could not help it.
Galen: Your cunt is soaked right through those shorts. Try telling me that is the fucking wind.
Aria: Shut up. Shut your fucking mouth.
His cock was hard against my hip, and the bond pulled at the back of my neck like teeth.
Galen: Say you want this, and I will take my time with you.
Aria: Fuck you.
Galen: Wrong answer.
His teeth dragged over the bone at my shoulder, right where a claiming mark would sit.
Every wolf on this quay would see it and know exactly whose I was.
That was the coldest thought I ever had about my own skin.
I got my knee up and shoved his chest with both hands, and he let me go.
Aria: No. Not like this. Not you.
I ran with his mouth still wet on my neck.
Galen: Aria!
Galen: Run, then. The bond brings you back either way.
His voice carried over the water like a bell I could not unhear.
I got back to the shed and shut the door with my back against it.
Oren was asleep under his thin blanket, and my hands would not stop shaking.
Oren: Aria? You are late.
Aria: I am here. Go back to sleep. Everything is fine.
In the dark water of the bait bucket, my eyes were still glowing.
It was real. It was not going to break, not for me, and that scared me worse than any threat he had ever made.
One vial left. One brother safe. One Alpha who knew exactly where to find me.