SAVAGE

Book three in the Healer Series

By B N Toler

A savage is barbaric.

It attacks without restraint or pity.

It is fierce, merciless, and brutal.

Aldo has let that part of herself take over, drive her actions. I thought saving her from Bridge was my biggest problem.

I was wrong.

Something happened while she was missing. And it has altered her in a way that she is almost unrecognizable.

But she won’t tell me anything.

Instead, I’m forced to watch the young and naïve woman I’ve fallen in love with transition into everything I knew she could be; strong, fearless, and unstoppable. The problem is, she’s cut off her humanity, and coupled with those things, she’s a loose cannon.

She’s a savage.

My name is Daniel O’Sullivan and I’m in love with a broken woman. But I will bring her back and remind her of who she really is no matter what it takes.

Even if it kills me.

Excerpt:

I sit as I am for hours, motionless and staring at nothing. Meditating maybe. Giving myself the mental pep-talk everyone needs sometimes—the one where my inner voice tells me to get my shit together and stop acting like such a dumbass. When I finally stand, I wipe at my face, hoping to clear the uncertainty I feel then take a deep breath. I spin around, ready to head back to the house only to stop abruptly. Daniel stands ten feet away from me, his arms crossed over his massive chest; his gray eyes fixed on mine.

“How long have you been there?” I ask, my voice husky.

“The entire time.”

My heart flutters and crashes into my stomach at the same time. I love that he loves me so much. He would follow me to the ends of the earth just to watch me unravel, but I hate he has to. I need to be strong for him. I can’t let whatever it is I’m going through worry him. He has enough on his plate.

“I know . . .” he begins, letting his arms fall to his sides and stepping toward me. “You’ve been though a lot. I want to know everything that happened. You need to talk to someone about it.”

Taking a deep breath, I walk to him, and he hugs me tightly. If the roles were reversed, I’d want to know, too. If someone hurt him, I’d need to know every detail of what happened. I also know it would eat me alive and set my soul on fire. I couldn’t bear the images of someone doing to him what was done to me. So I won’t tell him.

“I just need a little time to get my bearings. I’m fine.”

He pulls me back and looks into my eyes. He doesn’t believe me. My hand finds his face covered with a few days worth of beard and slips into his thick dark hair.

“Please don’t lie to me,” he grumbles.

“Okay.” I nod. “I will be fine.” Which is the truth. At some point, I will be. When? I have no idea. Standing on my toes, I kiss him softly, and his arms tighten around me, squeezing me to his chest. I decide to share one thing—more like a thought or nightmare—from my time in the nest.

“I never thought I’d see you again. I mean . . . I hoped, but there were times I thought I wouldn’t make it out, that I’d die there.” His breath hitches as he squeezes me tighter. “Will you do something for me?”

“Anything,” he promises.

“Make love to me. Right here. Right now,” I beg. “Just . . . touch me everywhere.”

When he pulls away, the worry that’s been laced in his gaze has been replaced with heat—beautiful, scorching desire that makes me ache in all the right places. Pulling his shirt over his head, he lays it on the ground then takes a step toward me. I have no idea why I’m trembling. We’ve made love before, not even a day ago, but as he prowls toward me, the hunger and want humming from him, it feels like the first time. Grabbing the hem of my shirt, he pulls it up, lifting my arms above my head as he removes it. My hair falls freely over my shoulders and he steps back, his eyes perusing me agonizingly slowly. He doesn’t speak, just has his visual feast then comes back to remove more clothing. Each article of clothing he removes builds the fire inside me. I need him. When I’m standing before him in only my panties, he circles me, an energy thrumming from him that is almost enough to get me off alone.

When his warm skin meets my back, his cock pressed against my ass, I nearly collapse. He got naked fast.

A second is nothing to the average human, but to hybrids, it can be an infinite amount of time. It’s almost useless to count it anymore; there is no way to measure it. Not in moments like this. I can’t tell how long Daniel worships my body with only his mouth and hands; how long his tongue dances across my flesh, his fingers caressing all the right spots. I cannot measure the seconds, minutes, or hours that pass as he speaks to me in a language only we are privy to. All I know is it’s too long, yet not nearly long enough. It is euphoria. It is all that matters. By the time he lays me on the ground, my legs are shaking, my body trembling.

Words. I need them. He has to hear I belong to him. That I love him, and could never be without him. Why can’t I speak? I’m so overcome with how I feel for him; there are no words to sum it up.

“Shh,” he whispers as his body towers over mine. “Show me,” he murmurs, and my heart nearly explodes. My hands touch him everywhere, squeezing flesh, pulling him to me, begging for every bit of his weight to crush me; surely there is no more beautiful way to go than death by Daniel. When he pushes inside me, I moan, my head thrown back as I continue to claw at him.