“I know. See ya soon.”
“Don’t you dare fla—” Peri started, but then they were gone.
“She hates it when he flashes them instead of letting her do it.” Skender’s voice rumbled against Tenia.
Tenia shifted, trying to gather all the thoughts that had been whirling around in her head while she’d been in her weird coma. At the time, she thought she knew exactly what she would say. But now that Tenia was in his presence, feeling him against her, breathing in his scent, all she could think about was how badly she missed him and how scared she’d been that she would never have this with him.
“Tenia?” Skender’s voice was tentative.
She moved, shifting forward and then turning so she faced him. Then Tenia crawled forward and swung a leg over his lap, sitting down on his thighs. Her hands rested on his chest, her fingers flexing and relaxing as she touched him. Her mate. Never in all of her existence would she have thought that she’d be given a mate. Once upon a time, Tenia’s heart had beat for one reason only—Torion. Now, two people were the cause for the rhythm in her chest. No matter what Skender had done, she could feel his remorse. Tenia understood those emotions all too well because they also lived inside of her. Tenia’s inability to protect her child, to keep him from the evil that was the Order, still plagued her.
His eyes softened as Skender stared at her. His gaze roamed over her face as if trying to memorize every inch, every nuance of her expressions. Tenia opened her end of the bond completely. She didn’t want there to be any secrets between them. She pictured what she saw when Peri ignited the compound in the cold fire. Tenia remembered the burning against her skin and her sheer terror when Torion appeared and she’d known there was nothing she could do to save him. She let him see every thought that ran through her mind when she’d been sure her life would end.
Skender’s hand rose, and the pads of his fingers ran across her forehead and down her temple to her cheek. Her face wasn’t the only place she felt his hand. Skender used the bond to let her feel his touch in her hair, down her back, and up her calves to her thighs. He overwhelmed her senses. Her nerves felt exposed as he pushed his own emotions through their open bond. “If I could turn back time, I would give anything to keep you and Torion safe. Even if it meant tying you both to my side. I woulddoanything to keep you from going through what you did,” he whispered. The reverence in his voice only punctuated the longing Tenia felt from him.
“When we first met, I was so angry.” She bit her lip as she recalled the first time she’d seen him. Her eagerness to get Torion away from the Order had been her only focus … until suddenly she saw Skender. He’d been standing right in front of the door that kept her son captive but also safe from the ugliness that had become their lives. “I wanted to kill you, but in equal measure, I wanted to be with you. I was so confused.”
His lips turned up in a small, crooked smile. “I was pretty sure you were going to follow through with your threat to slit my throat.”
Tenia winced as she remembered the words she’d spat at him. She’d said a lot of things out of terror and rage—things she didn’t mean. She lifted one of her hands and ran her finger across the flesh of his neck where she’d threatened to plunge her blade. Now she’d protect his throat with her own life.
“No.” He shook his head, having picked up on her thoughts. “My life is not worth sacrificing yours. Don’t you ever consider it.Iprotect you. That’s how this works.”
She shook her head in return. “I don’t think so. If that was how it worked, then there would be no mate bond that tied our lives together. Our souls are two halves, remember? One cannot exist without the other.”
“That’s only if the bond is complete,” Skender said. “As long as that doesn’t happen, I can die and you will continue this life with Torion.”
“And if I died?” she challenged. “The darkness would destroy you. Your wolf would become feral. And you would have to be killed anyway.” He opened his mouth to speak, but she pressed a finger over his lips. “And even if we both live, without the bond complete, the darkness will still continue to grow inside of you.”
Skender leaned forward and pressed his forehead to hers. “But not as fast. Having you near would be enough to slow it down.”
Tenia’s anger flared as she realized what he was saying. “You still don’t want to complete the bond with me?” Just saying the words out loud felt like a blade being shoved into her heart. “Even after we nearly lost one another? Even after I’ve told you I don’t care what has happened in your past? You’re mine now. You’re Torion’s now.” Tenia gripped his shirt in her hands, fisting it so tightly her knuckles turned white.
“I have lived for centuries on my own, Skender. I accepted the reality that I would always be alone. That Torion would be the only love in my life. And until you, Iwascontent with that. Or at least I thought I was. And then you and your damn patient, protective, selfless ass had to go and ruin my contentedness.” She pulled her hands back, his shirt still gripped within them, and slammed her knuckles against his chest. “Yougave me something I didn’t have. You gave me hope. You made me realize I didn’t want to be alone anymore. But not only that I didn’t want to be alone, but that I didn’t want to be withoutyou. YOU!” She snapped her mouth closed, trying to contain everything that had built inside of her, threatening to erupt. If she wasn’t careful, Tenia might just hit her mate with a bolt of her magic in order to knock some sense into him. “You told me once that you were made for me and I for you. Are you telling me now that is no longer what you believe?”
He growled. “Of course not. I told you when we were in the compound that I would never complete the bond because I wouldn’t allow you to tie yourself to the likes of me.” He pulled his head back from hers. Then as if he couldn’t help himself, Skender pressed a tender kiss to each of her cheeks. He ran his hands through her hair and gently pulled as if to punctuate his words, “You shine brightness into the dark parts of me, my own personal sun. I will not bite you only for you to bearmy shameas your own, simply because you wear my mark.”
Tenia gritted her teeth and tried to rein in her temper. “That is not your decision to make. How many times do I have to tell you that?”
“But it is, my sweet Tenia. I have the right to choose whether I biteyou.”
She couldn’t help it. Before she even realized what she was doing, Tenia opened her palms, releasing his shirt and slammed her hands into his chest, shooting a bolt of her magic. She didn’t hit him with enough power to cause any damage, but the jolt got his attention.
“Dammit, female.” Skender barked and grabbed her wrists, pulling them away. He pushed them down and pressed them against the side of her thighs, effectively shackling her. “Was that really necessary?”
Her eyes narrowed. “Have you changed your mind about completing the bond?”
His lips drew taunt across his face. “No,” Skender bit out.
“Then yes, it was necessary.” With his hands wrapped around her wrists, Tenia’s fingers were still free to zap him again, this time in his leg. He snarled and gripped her tighter. She probably shouldn’t have smiled, but Tenia couldn’t help it. She smiled even bigger when she thought of how Myanin would totally approve of her friend’s persuasion tactics.
“Zapping me will not change my mind. Can’t you see you deserve better than me?” he practically shouted. “If you take me as your true mate, you will also bear my shame, Tenia. Don’t you get it? It’s not just about me not being worthy. It’s about the fact that you aren’t just mating me. You take on all of my sins as your own. You will not have a pack, because I don’t have a pack. You will face the rage of others, simply because you are mine and I am yours. Torion will be affected as well. He will not be able to be with the other kids because we won’t be welcomed. He will live with the stigma of a father who did horrible things and he will never be able to get out from under it.”
“You’re a bigger fool than I thought.” She gave him one more pulse of power, this time hard enough that he released her. She leaped to her feet and took several steps away from him. Skender slowly stood, his eyes never leaving hers. “Being a pair, sharing a soul, choosing to love one another comes with all of that, no matter who we mate, Skender. The person’s baggage doesn’t determine their worth, and it shouldn’t determine our ability to love them and be with them, despite what we might endure. That’s what love does, it endures.”
“Love isn’t always enough.” He sounded utterly defeated, which just pissed her off more.
“Are you saying that the Great Luna got it wrong?” She motioned between them. “What? Was she having an off day when she matched two souls that couldn’t be together? Did the creator of all supernatural beings fall asleep on the job and then just say, ‘To hell with it. Let’s just see how they do together?’”
