21. Help Her Thrive - Part 1

~ CASIMIR ~

As I walked further from Jesse’s chamber feeling smug, but still a little sweaty, something itched between my shoulder blades. I tapped into the bond, careful to hold myself apart, yet open myself enough to measure her… and to my irritation, discovered her emotional descent becoming more drastic.

I’d felt the pang of her desire for me—which was a good sign—but this sudden plunge into fear, while perhaps natural, was frustrating. And as I held her heart on that glowing string between us but kept myself blocked, all too quickly her fear threaded with hints of despair.

Already? Already we were back to this… this failure?

I wanted to bite something. What had happened? What was she thinking to make her so scared?

Far from being the strongest I had found, was she going to fail me even faster than the others?

I stopped in the middle of the corridor, turning to look over my shoulder in the direction I’d come from, suddenly tempted to return to her, a combination of frustration and