“Stop,” she breathlessly whispers as her cheeks redden.
“Are you telling yourself to stop? It sounds like it. Stop slipping your fingers into your aching core when you bathe, stop thinking of me and how I will claim every inch of your body. Stop Selene. Go on, stop fantasizing about me because I know you are.”
“Stop,”
I chuckle, “That sounds like a whine a beggar makes. A plea. Beg me to make it stop and I will, Selene. Beg me to do something. Gods! Anything. Claim you! Reject you. Beg! I’m imploring you for anything but this current state.”
“I can not change it,” she snaps as she presses her thighs closer together.
I grab her wrist and hold her hands high, “For far too long, men have tried to make women think they can not do anything. I’m not that type of man. These hands,” I shake them vigorously, “can change anything. Do anything. I wish they would. How do I convince a bird that’s been caged all its life to learn to fly? Jump! Yes, we might fall, but eventually we will soar.”
Her bottom lip trembles, shaking tears free from her eyes. I kiss her knuckles, then swiftly drop them.
Her gasp of agony over my abandoned touch will haunt me. But I will never force her. I am not Galen.Shehas to want this.
“Sometimes we lie to protect those we,” her breath catches. She was about to say a word she claimed never to have known.
Love.
Turning, she swings open the door, shattering the silencing spell over the room. “Come, we have more important things to focus on.”
Tristen strides forward and slaps me. “If Everett’s magic didn’t kill you, this will. What the fuck? I warned you.” He tugs his hair. “We need to leave. Now.”
“She’s my mate.”
He punches my jaw. His lips curl back, revealing his fangs. “You’re dooming yourself.”
“Mating bonds have laws,” I dispute, losing my patience.
His gaze rakes over me. “Laws?” he spits. “You think Galen respects the laws?”
“This is not the first time in history a royal has been bonded to someone lesser.”
His eyes search my face, and then he grabs my shirt with an iron grip. “You are not lesser, brother. It matters that she is married to a raving, murderous lunatic who has armies. We might be soldiers, killers without a home or titles of value, but we have things to lose.”
The plea in his voice would make a monster see reason. But the bond in my chest doesn’t care.
“We have Ember, Ryker, Nero, and Cyrus. Think of them when you want to sink your fangs into her.” He pulls me into a hug.
Slowly, I hug him back. “I can keep it hidden.” I say.
It’s not true.
Tristen breaks our hold and snorts as he shakes his head. “He’s a tip, brother. Learn to lie better.” He stomps to the door.“She’s the queen; she cannot be your mate.”
Why can’t she be both? Everett said I was meant to be a king. Therefore, Selene could still be a queen.
Myqueen.
Chapter
Twenty-Five
Tristen
I’d do anything for my older brother because he has done everything for me.
I feel like a parent doing something my child won’t like, but I must. Like all loving parents, I’ll do anything to save my child.
