His pupils are perhaps the most terrifying of all. Huge black pits anchored inside a sea of molten silver.

It’s like it’s him—but not.

A low rumble starts in his chest. “Back away slowly, as far away as you can from me.”

The breath catches in my throat as I obey, inching backward. My focus snags on the black tee pasted to his body. The muscles of his torso shiver and jerk, his chest heaving, hands clenched at his sides. Water drips from his messy midnight blue hair, the moisture drawing out the waviness.

A few strands have already started to freeze.

That’s when I notice the gash in his side. The silver blood dripping from it.

“What happened?” I whisper, struggling to keep the worry from my tone. Afraid any emotion at all will send him over the edge. “Are you hurt?”

His gaze slowly travels down to his side, back up to me, as if he was unaware of his injury. A muscle in his neck jerks. “I heard you call out, I could feel your fear. They tried to stop me but—”

My foot snags on a rock, and I stumble backward.

I don’t even see him move, but before I know what’s happening, he’s pinned me to the cave wall. His arms post on either side of my head, caging me in.

“Val—”

His hands slip under my wet dress and—

Oh, boy. The moment his fingers touch the bare flesh of my stomach, I know I’m lost. Utterly destroyed. Heat surges in waves through my core as he slides his hands behind my back to cup my ass.

Growling, he lifts me up, using the wall as leverage, and hell if I can’t do anything but wrap my legs around his waist and circle my arms around his neck.

Dark excitement flickers inside his eyes. There are no words between us as he holds my stare. Daring me to look at him. To finally accept this thing between us.

I gasp as he slides his hand through my tangled hair, capturing the strands, and tilts my head back slightly.

With his other hand, he brushes the rough pad of his thumb over my lower lip. “When I heard you calling for me, everything faded away but you, and I knew in that moment that I would burn down the entire fucking Everwilde to protect you.”

His lips crush mine, his tongue claiming my mouth, making it clear this time is different than the last. There is no gentleness, no holding back. A rush of dizziness overwhelms me.

I melt into him. Wanting more, more, more—

His attention moves on to my throat. I arch my back as his teeth scrape up my neck, nipping, and then when his mouth finds my ear—

The sigh I make is a cross between a moan and a plea. For him to stop or continue, I don’t know.

I don’t know.

Crap.

“You’re mine, Summer.” His breath is cold as it tickles my ear, his words clicking something inside me into place, the answer to a forgotten question I’d asked long ago. “Do you understand? Mine, and I will slaughter anyone who tries to take you from me.”

Fuck.

My brain is scrambled. I can’t find the words to respond. The clarity of mind to articulate why this is a bad idea . . .

Why don’t I want this?

How could I not?

Holy mother trucker, the things running through my head right now would make Aunt Vi fall over dead.

Aunt Vi! Focus on Aunt Vi!

But, oh Lordy, there’s only a thin, wet tee between Valerian’s flesh and my bare thighs, and that shirt is pissing me off. I tug at it, growling like a deranged lunatic, single-mindedly set on murdering the overly expensive piece of fabric.

The rational part of me understands what’s happening. We’re both reacting to the magical bond between us, just as helpless to escape its grip as I was against the river’s immense power.

But the other part of me doesn’t want to understand. She doesn’t want to think about anything at all except the ache building inside her, begging for release.

When I succeed in twisting his damp shirt high enough that our flesh meets—his skin cool and hard and startling against my feverish thighs—he whips his head back to stare at me.

Our eyes lock, and a new wave of emotions slams into me, eclipsing my physical desires.

I gasp as a current of power blasts through my middle. It’s his—or mine. Or maybe both of ours merging into one stream.

The air around us shimmers hot and cold. Either I’m hallucinating or there’s butterflies and snowflakes swirling around us, a collision of hot and cold, summer and winter.

Whoa, this is some kinky, crazy stuff.

Muscles feather in his jaw as he murmurs through clenched teeth, “Summer, if you’re not ready, tell me now. In a few seconds, neither one of us will be able to stop.”

Won’t be able to stop. Why would I want to stop?

I blink. This is my choice, right? I know I want this, but . . .

Pale light draws my focus to the golden chain fixed to his wrist—

I throw my hand up, startled by the cold bite of metal circling my neck.

He notices my confusion and says, “I had to claim you before someone else could.”

Claim you. You’re mine. I’ll slaughter anyone else who tries to take you from me.

That’s not love, a nagging voice whispers, that’s possession.

Reality comes crashing in to ruin the party. The butterflies and snowflakes evanesce. My desire drains, leaving me overwhelmingly aware of my other physical needs.

I’m shivering. Half in shock from nearly dying.

“Put me down . . . please.”

To his credit, he reacts immediately, gently bracing his hands on my waist as he steps back, guiding my unsteady feet to the ground.

The moment we break apart, our flesh no longer touching, the predatory sharpness in his features softens, and his stare goes from ravenous, like I’m something to be guarded and devoured, to concerned.

“Summer, you’re freezing.” He looks around to the frost icing the walls, the waterfall . . . now frozen solid. His gaze drops to the chain pulled nearly taut between us. “Shit. I had no idea—”

Voices draw our attention to the wall of ice just in time to see it explode as Eclipsa and Asher bust through, Ruby a second behind them. They halt when they see us, Ruby slamming into the back of dragon boy’s head. I can tell by their silence they’re wondering if they’re too late.

Eclipsa steps forward carefully. “Summer, are you okay?”

I nod, even as I want to point out the chain around my fricking neck, which is abso-fricking-lutely not okay.

I know it’s not Valerian’s fault—I know that. If he hadn’t claimed me, someone else would have, but . . . I’m still pissed and ashamed to be leashed like an animal. And that he did it so stealthily while I was busy grinding over his body like it was a stripper pole and . . . oh, God.

Wait till I tell Mack—Oberon’s beard, Mack! “What happened to Mack?”

“She’s back at the Selection, safe,” Asher assures me.

“And is she . . .” The word claimed sticks in my chest like glass.

“She’s my shadow,” Asher says carefully.

And for some reason the diplomatic way he says this reminds me of Valerian, who had absolutely zero qualms declaring I was his like a toddler fighting for a toy on the playground.

You’re mine.

Eclipsa takes another step—

Valerian lodges himself in front of me, growling low. I guess we’re still on the playground.

My stupid leash jerks taut, the metal biting into the back of my neck. Cold blasts through the cave, a blizzard of giant snowflakes pummeling the walls.

Asher growls his annoyance, glaring morosely at the snowflakes, but Eclipsa holds up her hand. “It’s me. Eclipsa. Your friend, remember? You’re still under the influence of the hunt’s magic. We’re not going to hurt Summer.”

Asher circles around to me, slowly, his eyes on Valerian. Ruby has crept stealthily around the backside of the cave and takes her spot on my shoulder, ready to battle.

“I thought you died, Kid,” she murmurs.

“Nope, unless you can die of shame, I’m still very much alive, unfortunately.”

Frowning, her gaze slides to my metal collar. Fury settles in her eyes, and I realize that she’s also bound to the Evermore, basically a slave.

I wait, expecting some sort of snide remark. Or worse, pity. But she simply holds my stare, a look of solidarity passing between us.

Eclipsa dares another step closer. “Look at Summer. She’s freezing. You need to get control of your magic.”

Valerian glances back. Whatever he sees breaks through the protective urges driving his actions, and the blizzard abruptly stops.

Asher holds out a hand to me. “Let her go, Prince. I’d hate to have to kick your ass in front of an audience.”

I tense as I wait for Valerian to react poorly. But his shoulder’s loosen, the violence bleeding from his posture. “You could try, fire lizard.”

“There’s the cocky prince we know and love,” Eclipsa quips, her stance going from primed for fighting to casual indifference. “I thought I was going to have to kill you, idiot.”

He chuckles, his voice back to that familiar teasing arrogance. “You tried, remember? You ripped open my side.”

“Yeah,” Eclipsa says. “And you deserved it, you animal. If you’d gotten to Summer in the beginning, in that state . . .”

Her words hang in the air, their implication clear. The others glance at me, and the pity in their eyes is like the cherry on top of this whole effed up scenario.

Chased by hellhounds on a Wild Hunt. Check.

Nearly tortured and given as a present to the psychopathic Spring Court heir. Check.

Almost drowned in a river and then murdered by a waterfall. Check.

Turned into a horny hooker and nearly bound to an Evermore for eternity against my will.

Check. Check. Frickin check.

All of those things, sprinkled over a lifetime, would mess someone up. But crammed into less than an hour?

I release a ragged breath as Asher rushes over and performs a quick spell for warmth. I didn’t realize exactly how cold I was until the heat sinks into my flesh, stinging the more frozen bits like my fingers and toes.