Free Moon Rise (Twilight Shifters Book 2) by Kate Danley

Please don't make me kill my people until I absolutely have to."
    Finn gripped her arms, pleading, "I cannot allow you to stay here.  If I come back and find you slaughtered like that—"
    "Finn, Lars needs me.  You and he might be able to live because of the shift, but he needs me to help keep him sane.  I am the only one who knew what he went through."
    And then, without a word of warning, Finn bent down and pressed his lips against Aein's, his stubble rough around her mouth.  His arms engulfed her, wrapping her so tight, she wasn't sure where her body ended and his began.  She felt herself melting, the heat chasing away all the horrors of the swamp.  The kiss was desperate and urgent.  It devoured her whole.  It was as if he needed to fit a lifetime of regrets and passion into that one moment.  It was as if he didn't trust she would be there for him to ever touch again.  When they parted, he rested his forehead against hers.  "Don't you dare die on me.  Don't you dare be the one I find in a heap, slaughtered by some monster because I wasn't fast enough getting back.  Live."
    Aein flung her arms around his neck and held him close, the thinness of her linen shirt allowing the heat of his body to seep into her skin, allowing the beating of his heart to play against hers.  She pressed her lips to his temple so that her words would rumble in his bones.  "I promise," she said.  "I promise.  Now, go."
    Without another word, Finn turned and made his way back to the camp.  She picked up the discarded armor and slowly made her way back, picking her way through the tree stumps and rocks.  The fading twilight made it hard to see her way.  Somewhere along the line Lars found her.  She gripped onto his fur and let him guide her through.  He made no indication that he saw what passed between her and Finn, but she was sure he could smell Finn all over her.
    By the time they reached the camp, Finn had loaded up one of the horses with the few provisions he would need to get back to the Haidra kingdom.  He turned back to Aein and Lars, that lapse of passion now hidden behind his duty.  "You take care of her.  I am leaving her in your care and will hold you responsible if anything happens."  His eyes locked with Aein's and she knew his words were meant for her.  "I will be back.  I promise, I will be back.  I will fly as quickly as my horse will let me and I will return."
    Aein raised her hand in goodbye as he mounted and was gone, disappearing into the darkness.  They stood there long after the sound of the hooves faded and the still silence returned to the swamp.  Aein stared down at Lars as Finn's final words looped in her head.  She tried to force back the memory of the time she had been the one on horseback, the time when she had been the one to leave the swamp.  She had made the same promise not so long ago.

Chapter Nine
    W ith night descending, there was nothing to do but sleep.  Aein stepped towards the fire pit as if in a trance and then stopped.  Fire could only do so much to cremate the dead.  The pit was filled with bones, the bones of their slaughtered fellows.  She could not force herself to stay here.  Death hung in the air.  The smell of the ash was infused in every inch of the cursed place.  The fog was beginning to build just outside the circle of the camp, as if trying to figure out the perfect time to creep in.  She could not face the horrors of what it might play in her mind tonight, especially when reality was even more terrifying.  She went into one of the shacks and grabbed a lantern from inside.
    "Come on," she said to Lars.
    He whined, unsure of what she was proposing.
    "I can't stay here," Aein explained, gripping one arm tightly around her waist to keep herself from shaking.  "We'll come back tomorrow when I can face this.  But there are too many ghosts.  I can't.  Not tonight."
    He whined again and Aein could tell he thought she was foolish, but he followed her,