“Yes.”
Saedra swiped a hand over her hair, wishing she hadn’t looped it in a bun. She turned away from him, the instinct to hide her relief as much a part of her as her scar.
A hand landed on her shoulder roughly, stopping her before she could get far. Garik turned her to face him. “Bond mates don’t lie to one another.”
Tears burned the back of her eyelids, but Saedra didn’t let them fall. He was calm now but his voice held a layer of ice that hadn’t been there before. She sniffed in determination. “I’m sorry, if it means anything.”
She wouldn’t use her fear and the terror she lived under daily as justification. Lying no matter the expected result was wrong. She could at least own that. Her only hope, her only saving grace, was that the bond he’d reluctantly entered with her would salvage some thread of a future together.
Garik tipped her face up, ensuring she met the metallic glint of his gaze. “Don’t keep any more secrets, sesi. This one is enough and bothers me deeply that you are unwilling to tell me.”
Breath wooshed out of her at hearing the endearment she’d thought lost to her. She tried to convey how earnest she was in her reply. “I won’t. I can’t say it won’t happen again because my future is up in the air, but I’m going to try my best not to hold things back.”
“You misunderstand me. No lies, petit coincin. That is not negotiable.”
Right. Hard line. “Alright. No lies. None.”
Her breathing settled as soon as she made the promise. They were in this together.
“Good.” His smile started small then grew until it stretched his lips wide over the even rows of his teeth. Saedra gaped as corresponding joy exploded inside of her.
She leaped into Garik’s arms and he caught her weight with ease. A moment later, she pulled back slightly but kept her hands on his shoulders, needing the contact. Was it her imagination or did he look much improved from his stint in her father’s dungeons? She could have sworn he’d been far more injured when she’d broken into his cell.
His face was less strained. He was definitely getting his strength back. She had no idea how he’d gone from the weak, beaten condition she’d found him in last night to this version. “You’re healing, aren’t you?”
He nodded. “Almost full strength. Possibly by tomorrow.”
Perhaps his genetics, but she didn’t quite believe that in this instance. “How?”
She noted his hesitation and worried he wouldn’t trust her with the answer. Had she already ruined something she hadn’t known she wanted until this moment?
“The bonding vow. One of the effects is that it can jumpstart the healing process for a Gerelin. To better protect a mate.”
The words took a moment to comprehend. “Bonding with me helped you?”
That was a positive and meant her actions weren’t completely selfish. She’d managed to help him though she hadn’t been aware.
He caressed her from shoulder to arm. “Yes. It’s a natural reaction for the bond to feed the weaker of the two if there is an injury.”
Saedra let that sink it. Hiking one brow, she said, “No more omissions after this, though, right?”
This got her another corner curl of his mouth and Saedra had never felt warmer inside. Garik squeezed her waist one more time before releasing her. “Exactly, sesi. We should get as much rest as possible. I have a feeling Maurin is going to launch an all out attempt to get both of us back.”
If only for spite. Her father wouldn’t come after her because of any sense of concern. It would purely be because of his feelings of ownership toward Saedra. And vengeance. Definitely vengeance.
***
Mentally, Garik cursed. There had been a brief flash of fear in her gaze when he confronted her about the relationship with Maurin. It tore at him. He didn’t want Saedra scared of him. That wasn’t how bond mates worked.
Not knowing the truth made him leery. What could she possibly have to hide by telling him how Maurin maintained control over her? He let it go for now. The pleading note as she begged was more than he could endure from someone who appeared as gentle as Saedra.
Whatever Maurin had done to her, Garik would make him pay. He focused all of his anger toward Maurin. Maurin was the one who ordered his torture and Maurin was the reason Garik had been locked in a small dark cell.
Still his mind nagged, she had to be important to Maurin for him to put so much effort in getting her back. That made Saedra the perfect weapon to retaliate against Maurin.
His mind violently rejected the idea. She was his bond mate and he was honor bound to protect her. How many times would he need to remind himself of that to fight the training he’d received at the Guild?
Except his growing feelings for Saedra weren’t strictly due to his Gerelin nature. No, it was more. More than the bond working on the connection between them. Something else was at play and Garik shied away from probing too deeply at these new feelings until he had a chance to give it his full attention.
“Tell me about your life in Maurin’s household. Were things good until something major happened?”
Why else would she be so desperate to escape? Her actions and planning screamed years of abuse in some form for her to seek a means of getting away.
Saedra snorted. “Something like that. It is common knowledge he abused his wife for years before her death. He has an extremely low tolerance for perceived weakness in others.”
“He wanted you to be stronger...physically?” Garik ran his gaze over her slender form, remembering how she limped during their mad run the night before.
Her face flushed and she looked away. “Yes. That.”
There was more. He could tell by the sudden hunching of her shoulders. Taking a seat at one of the stools, he waved her to join him. When she sat across from him, he studied her strained features. “You said he abused the woman he married. Did he abuse you as well?”
The very thought caused an instant reaction in Garik. It gave him more fuel in his reasons for striking back at Maurin when the time came.
Saedra rubbed her hands over her forearms as if chilled. The heating unit was still running so it had to be her thoughts. “He was not, is not, a good individual. In any way.”
Then she proceeded to tell him all the ways Maurin had treated her through her years growing up and Garik used the knowledge to create a greater list of reasons to kill him.
“That last time—when he flung me across the room and damaged my leg—I knew then I had to get away before he killed me. It took years to get to the point where I believed I had a chance at success. Years of saving credits and learning how to use comm units to search for what I needed without being caught.”
A swift death would be too kind for Maurin. Garik wanted to drag his torture out until he felt every bit of the pain he’d dealt the woman who had been a child in his home. “And the scar on your face?”
“From another time when I’d angered him. He did it when I least expected it. Came upon me with calm questions. A smile at my answers.” Her features cringed in memory. “Before I could read the change in him, he slashed at my face and I fell to the floor in shock and pain.”
Garik resisted the urge to roar out his rage at the abuse she’d suffered. The day was coming soon for Maurin to pay for all he’d done to his sweet mate. “What about your parents? Did they not have any say so in his abuse? Were they afraid to leave and take you with them?”