Luna pulled herself up off the bed and slipped in front of Kirith’s massive body. Slowly, hesitantly, she leaned forward and put her hands on his face, pressing her forehead to his.

“I’m so sorry,” she said. It was no wonder he hated Wolves. No wonder he’d hated her. The only surprise to come of any of this was that he’d ever so much as spoken a single kind word to her. She pulled back and looked into his eyes. “I didn’t know any of this. I wish I had, but I didn’t.”

“Those were my woods,” said Kirith, locking her in his green-eyed gaze. “I knew every bird, every ant in that forest. He took my family from me. He even took my home. I could never go back there, after…”

“Of course not.”

Kirith pulled back, rubbing his eyes with his palms. “You must have thought, all this time, that I was a monster,” he said. “All these years, you must have thought the Dragon from those woods had killed the few people he was supposed to love.” He let out a deep, cynical laugh and looked away. “It’s no wonder you looked so horrified in the pub when you and I met. I could smell the fear on you. You know, some part of me even revelled in it. Perhaps I am a monster after all.”

Luna shook her head, dropping to her knees in front of him. “No, Kirith. I think I knew, even then, that you couldn’t be so cruel. I knew it all along. It never made sense to me. You were too kind. Too good. You loved your family. So I never understood it. Never could grasp what I saw. I didn’t tell anyone about it, because I didn’t want…” She swallowed hard. “Didn’t want to think of you that way.”

“I’m not kind or good,” he growled. “I’m not a fucking hero out of some fairy tale. I failed my family by not taking Ripper’s threats seriously. Don’t you see? I was supposed to look after them, and my arrogance got them killed.”

“That’s not true,” Luna said, pushing down the sob that was trying to force its way into her chest. “It’s all Ripper’s fault. You couldn’t have known he’d do something like that. He’s insane. He’s a fucking psychopath.”

“Well, that fucking psychopath is still your Alpha,” he replied, turning to her, his eyes bright with his Dragon’s presence. “Let there be no mistake. You are currently fraternizing with an enemy of your Pack.”

“I don’t care. I’d rather be with you than with anyone, especially now. I’ve never bonded with my Pack. Never felt close to any of them, except my brother.”

A terrifying, earth-shaking growl worked its way through Kirith’s body, like a sonic boom about to shatter the whole universe. “You listen to me,” he snarled, his Dragon’s voice somehow vibrating its way up his vocal cords. “I am your enemy. I’m not your protector, however much you might want me to be. I’m here for one purpose only, and that is to take down your Alpha.”

Luna rose to her feet, unafraid. Kirith’s eyes had begun to glow emerald green, his veins pulsing with fire as his Dragon threatened to explode from his flesh and consume everything around him.

But still she wasn’t scared of him. He wasn’t a Big Horrid Dragon, not anymore.

He was Kirith, a man who’d lost his entire world.

“You listen to me,” she said. “You saved my life, when you could have watched those men tear me to pieces. You could have watched them do unspeakable things to me, but you protected me. I owe you everything. You are my protector.”

The strange, glowing veins in his skin had begun to fade, but his eyes remained bright as a tear streaked down his right cheek. “I would give anything to be worthy of such praise,” he said. “Anything.” He wrapped his fingers gently around her forearms and pulled her hands to his lips, kissing them gently before dropping them. Slowly he rose to his feet and walked away from her, stopping when he’d reached a tall dresser at the other end of the room.

“My son and daughter,” he said softly as he turned to face her, “they were so young. Seven and eight. Too young ever to have shifted. My wife, she was human. She didn’t have the strength to fight the Wolves off, and Ripper knew it. He knew it would be all too easy to take them down.”

“Oh, Kirith…” said Luna. She didn’t know what to say. What could one possible say to a man who’d endured such a trauma?

“I killed the two Wolves when I found them on my doorstep,” he said, his voice raw with anger. “I would tell you that I’m sorry for it, but I’m not. You see, they’d been in my home, standing over my…” He choked back a sob, unable to finish the sentence. My babies. My sweet, innocent babies. Those were the words wanted to say; they had to be. How could he possibly say anything else?

He turned towards her. “Ripper and your Pack disappeared that night. That was the great irony, of course. The great insult. He killed my family, and then he left. He never did take the land that he’d so wanted. In the end, all he wanted was revenge on me for not giving my woods to him.” He let out a bitter chuckle. “He loved knowing how much he’d hurt the great Dragon in the forest. Loved that he’d shown me his power by breaking me into a million pieces.”

“Why didn’t you come after him? After us?” Luna asked. Surely a Dragon as powerful as Kirith could have figured out where they were. Here in London, Ripper hid far below the earth. But in Bonham he’d been exposed, vulnerable.

“Because I felt as though I needed to punish myself first,” Kirith said. “I hated Ripper. Hated your Pack. But I hated myself even more. I stayed alone for a long time. But one day, not too long ago, I heard that Wolves had begun to make their way back to London. So I went to work to find out if perhaps the Warkshire Pack was among them.”

“There’s one thing I still don’t understand,” Luna said, hesitant to ask any more questions about that awful night. “Why did you burn your own house? Why did you…”

“I’ve told you I’m of Norse descent,” he said, his eyes staring off into the distance. “Viking stock. We give our dead a funeral pyre. It’s a sign of tribute, a sort of ceremony, to send them to Valhalla. I burned my family because I needed to believe they were going to a place where they would be protected by a force more powerful than myself.”

“More powerful than you? I always thought you were the most powerful thing in the world,” Luna said. “I always thought you were perfect.”

“I am no such thing,” he retorted, clenching his fists so hard that she could see his knuckles turn white. “Because of my imperfection, I lost them. All of them. Everyone I loved in the world.”

Luna stepped forward and grabbed him, flinging her arms around his body and squeezing. He might have hated her for it, but she didn’t care. She would hold him until he forced her to stop. And then she’d only squeeze harder.

“Don’t,” he moaned, leaving his arms at his side, refusing to hold her back. “Leave me. Please, just leave me alone, Luna.” But she didn’t, even when she felt the sob rise up in his chest.

“I won’t leave,” she told him. “I never will, not while you’re in so much pain. So don’t push me away and tell me that you don’t deserve my affection. You deserve that, and so much more. So let me help you now.”

He pulled her hands away from his body and turned away, slamming a hand down on top of the dresser. “I don’t deserve your help, or your affection. I don’t deserve anyone’s.” He spun around to confront her with a glare. Tears had begun to streak Luna’s cheeks, but she didn’t care. She was vulnerable to him now, in every possible way. But none of it mattered.

“How can you say that?” she asked. “Do you really think you’re worth nothing?”

“Don’t you see?” He threw his hands up and let out a laugh that hurt her heart. “I am nothing. I’m a husk.” His expression changed, his eyes softening, a look of something close to affection overtaking them for a moment. “But you’re not. Beautiful, soft, sensual woman. You should go find yourself a nice, happy Wolf shifter. Someone less fragile, less broken than me. I’m fire and brimstone. I’m claws and teeth. I have no heart. I have no soul. So go settle down with someone who will give you what you need, Luna. Just…do yourself a favour and run a thousand miles from the likes of me.”

She stepped back, a look of ire drawing her red brows together. “Find a Wolf? Find someone less fragile? Maybe I was wrong after all. You’re a cruel bastard,” she said. Whatever fire and brimstone was in him, she could summon it too. The red-haired Wolf’s heart had turned to flame with the cruelty of his words. “You’re a coward to tell me to find another man, when you know perfectly well that I only want you. You want me to take it as a rejection. You want to hurt me, because you think it’ll make me leave. But I know this is only your way to avoid closeness. You’re frightened of feeling anything, Kirith. But you know what? I’m not.”

“Fuck yes, it’s my way to avoid love!” he shouted back at her. “Do you think I want to deal with the cruelty of it? Do you think I want to let myself care about you, when all that came of it last time was pain?” He moved towards her, grabbing her by the chin. “Look at me,” he commanded. She met his gaze, tears in her eyes. “Even if I could bring myself to give into feelings for a Wolf shifter, do you think I could bear to lose you if I let myself fall in love with you? If we had children together, do you think I could live with myself if something happened to them?”

“I don’t think it,” she said, shaking her head. “I know it.”

“Well, that’s brilliant,” he laughed bitterly, letting her go and dropping his hands to his sides. “How the fuck could I bear such a thing?”

Luna inhaled, holding the breath somewhere deep in her chest before letting the words come. “You could bear it, because you’ve borne it before. Because you want to live, Kirith. But without love, there’s no life at all. You’re not alive so long as you’re fighting back your feelings. All you are is a shell, like you said, trying to hollow yourself out each day so that you have an excuse to go to bed angry, when the truth is that you could go to bed with me. You could go to bed with someone who cares about you. Someone who will be there when you wake up, who will hold you when you’re upset. Someone who might just love you back.”

For a moment he looked as though he might give in, that his hard shell might shatter at last.

“I can’t,” he said, shaking his head as if he wanted to release everything that had been building up for the last hour. “I can’t be with you, for too many reasons to count. I’m dead inside.”

“Kirith…” As Luna said his name, she wondered if it would be for the last time. “Don’t do this. Don’t push me away like this. Not now that you’ve told me the truth. I know it’s hard to open up. I understand how much it hurts. But please, let me help you.”

“You should help yourself,” he said. “You think you understand the world now, but the truth is that you’ve only begun to scratch its ugly surface.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked, but she wasn’t sure she really wanted an answer. Her heart couldn’t take any more ugliness. Not tonight.

“Nothing. Look, I’m tired,” Kirith replied, turning towards the bed. It was as if he was giving in, surrendering to the onslaught of emotions that had ravaged his soul.

“So sleep,” she replied. “Come.” She reached a hand out, knowing that he might as easily slap it away as take it.

But he reached for her and allowed himself to be pulled gently forward. She stood by in silence as he lay down on the enormous mattress. Quietly, she eased the duvet over him and slipped in behind him, wrapping a small arm around his massive body.

The Dragon shifter tensed for a moment, but he didn’t ask her to leave again. Instead, he took her hand in his and held it tight as they both drifted off to sleep.