Nothing is going to keep me from my mate.

Nothing at all.

I shove aside a larger ratling, and then the scent of Aspeth hits me, hard and fast. This one has a piece of fabric from her skirt, and when I lift it to smell it, there’s a strand of orange cat hair stuck to the fabric.

I bellow my fury even as the hand of the god claims me.

FORTY-THREE ASPETH

“Did you hear that?”

I rouse from sleep, my body aching something fierce. I’m hungry, too, but we’re trying to save our rations because we don’t know how long we’ll be here. The red light from the first ring continues to glow atop my staff, and the second is secured around my neck via a lace broken off from one of my boots.

Lark is sitting upright, her attention focused on the stone walls. Everyone else is asleep, with Mereden and Gwenna lying against the slab and Kipp curled up in Gwenna’s lap, clutching the last piece of his house in his arms.

“Hear what?” I murmur, keeping my voice down so I don’t wake the others.

She looks over at me. “I thought I heard something.”

“Ratlings?”

She considers for a moment, then shakes her head. “No. It sounded different. Like a shout of some kind, but it was far away.”

I sit up, too, and cock my head, listening. I don’t hear anything at all, not even the ratlings. They stopped flinging themselves against the door some time ago, and we went to sleep with one person on guard. I’d taken the first shift, and passed it over to Lark when I got too sleepy. It feels as if I’ve barely closed my eyes, and I rub them again. “Maybe it’s the stone settling.”

Lark doesn’t look convinced. “Maybe.”

I settle back down on the hard stone floor, barely cushioned by my cloak, when there’s a muffled bellow, followed by an angry thump.

And then another.

We both jerk upright.

“You think someone’s come to rescue us?” she whispers, eyes wide.

“ASPETH!”

Hawk’s roar is muffled by the thick stone walls, but I know his voice. He sounds desperate and unhinged.

I’ve never been so happy to hear anyone. “It’s Hawk!” I jump to my feet, shaking Gwenna, Kipp, and Mereden awake as Lark grabs her weapons. “They’ve come for us!”

“If it’s Hawk, he might be with Magpie,” Lark warns, pulling her sword from its sheath. “They might be here to arrest us.”

“Isn’t that better than dying down here?” Gwenna asks.

There’s another furious bellow and someone says something on the other side of the door. Hawk roars with what sounds like Taurian rage.

My heart skips in my throat with delight. I want to weep tears of happiness, because we’re not going to be trapped in this tomb for weeks, waiting to die. He’s come for me. Arrest or not, we can figure things out once we’re on the surface and not hemmed in by ratlings.

Oh gods, the ratlings! They’ll swarm him.

I step over Mereden and Gwenna, perching on the edge of the slab, and then bang my fist on the door. “There are ratlings!” I call out. “Be careful!”

My response? Another incoherent roar.

“Stand back!” someone says, voice so distant I barely hear it. “He’s coming through! We can’t stop him!”

I look over at the others and then the door lurches, another mighty roar shaking the interior. I could swear that dust filters down from above, the sounds Hawk is making are so loud. “Should we move the slab?” I ask, fretting. “I don’t want it to break—”

Something big and heavy slams against the double doors, and the slab jerks and then topples onto the floor, breaking cleanly in half. I let out a sound of dismay, only for Hawk to bellow in fury again, and the doors groaning once more with the force of his weight being flung against them. He throws himself against them again and I wince, because that has to hurt.

“Hawk?” I call out.

He snarls something, but I can’t make it out. It sounded a bit like “Mine” but that doesn’t make sense. I pick up my staff and my bag, and when he flings himself against the doors again, the leather belt stretches and breaks and Mereden’s staff snaps like a twig. The doors are thrown open.

Hawk storms inside, shoulders heaving. His clothing is torn, his chest is sweaty, and a trickle of blood runs down one bicep. He’s covered in dust, but the most startling thing is his eyes.

They’re a bright, vicious red. He’s gone wild.

The Conquest Moon is fully upon him.

FORTY-FOUR ASPETH

Istep forward, my pulse skittering with a mixture of arousal and unease. “Hawk?”

“Mine,” he snarls again, and thunders toward me, his hooves incredibly loud on the stone floor. He grabs me and pulls me against him, and I bite back a sob of relief at the sight of him. We’re rescued.

“Thank the gods you’re here,” I whisper.

His hands roam over me, and then he grabs my arse and drags me against him. His cock is rock-hard, the heat coming off of him absurd. He grinds me against the bulge at his crotch and makes a guttural sound.

And then he tears my overskirt off.

The Conquest Moon. Of course. It’s upon him, and he’s warned me over and over again that he won’t be himself when the god’s hand is upon him. That he’ll be mindless with lust. He didn’t come after me because he was worried about me. He came after me to fuck me.

And the others are standing around, gaping.

Hawk hauls me tighter against him, grinding me against his shaft, and he makes another sound, one of pure bestial need.

“It’s the Conquest Moon,” I cry out, even as he claws at the waist of my pants, desperate to get inside them. I look over at Lark. “He’s not himself. You need to get out of here.”

“This way,” calls someone else. “Over here! We’ve got the ratlings under control.”

Lark hefts her shield and heads out the doors. The group rushes out, Gwenna and the others fleeing the chamber that’s kept us safe for the last while. I remain locked in Hawk’s arms, and I don’t think I could get free if I tried. He’s all over me, clinging and ripping at my clothing as if it offends him.

“Leave the Taurian behind,” the guild soldier calls. “He’s gone mad.”

Hawk rubs his snout against my head, drinking in my scent, even as he squeezes my backside so tightly that I squeak.

“He’s not mad,” I call back. “He’s just in rut.”

“Regardless, leave him behind. We’ll shut him in until it’s safe for him to come out. You can return with us and we’ll lock him in.”

Leave him behind? Leave him trapped in the crypt by himself when he needs me the most? That’s the cruelest of things to suggest.

Hawk’s hands are roaming over my body, squeezing and touching everything. If he were in his right mind, he’d be full of apologies, because though Hawk is many things, he’s always considerate. But he’s not himself right now. He warned me, and warned me again. His big hand finds the front of my top and tears my chemise down, exposing my breast to his roaming hand, and I hastily fling my cloak over both of us as his mouth closes on my nipple.