He was asking for a fucking fist to his gut hard enough to puke up whatever worms he had swallowed down this morning.
“I’m sure it was riveting pillow talk,” I said.
He nodded in agreement before continuing. “Now that she knows both our secrets?—”
I cut him off with a hand to his throat, choking off whatever words were supposed to follow.
“How much did you tell her?” I gritted out throughmy teeth in a tone that promised violence.
Retaliating, he knocked my arm away, breaking my grip, before he shoved me back. I caught my footing after a few staggers, though my eyes were burning with anger at what he may have shared.
“Fucking relax!” he snapped.
Unnecessarily straightening his shirt and running his hands over his hair, pushing a few loose strands away from his face, he locked eyes with me.
“Didn’t talk about the chase or the Council if that’s what you’ve got your balls twisted up about.”
He went quiet, visibly clenching and unclenching his hands.
My temper came down to a simmer before I gave a single nod and a firm, “Good.”
Eventually, he broke his silence. “She thinks you hate her.”
I scoffed. “‘Cause I do.”
“Oh, fuck right off with that bullshit, Bale. If you hated her, you would have torn her heart straight out of her chest cavity last night.” He pinned me with a look that said he saw way more than I wanted.
It took every shred of self-control not to shift my weight around on my feet. I glanced around the empty sidewalk before turning my attention back to Corbin.
“Fine, I don’thateher. I hate that she’s an anomaly, an unknown, and something that could potentially tear our existence apart.”
“Or she could change it,” Corbin countered, clearly the optimist here.
I snorted. “Tearing it apartischanging it, Corb.”
He stepped closer to me, lowering his voice to a harsh whisper. “Every damn year, you ask why we do this. Every damn year, you act like you want to be put out of your misery.”
Jabbing a finger into my chest several times, he punctuated his next few words. “She’s. Our. Chance.” He sighed and dropped his hand to his side. “You want to get revenge on the mayor and the rest of the Town Council? Then we shake shit up.”
“And if she doesn’t make it out of the maze? You’re going to survive losing yourfated mate?” The last two words came out mockingly at the way he fawned over her, treating her like she lived in a giant bubble bound to pop.
“She will make it out.” There was no doubt in his words, just certainty tied together with an oath that went soul deep.
Working my jaw, chewing on the words and my stubbornness, I finally relented. “Okay. They draw the name tonight, let’s make sure all of Falston knows our princess’s name.”
A wicked smile appeared on Corbin’s face before he punched my shoulder playfully. “That’s the spirit. I knew you had something resembling brains up in that skull of yours.”
I rolled my eyes, muttering, “Asshole.”
Looking over at the courtyard, where I heard the telltale signs of a wood carving contest going on via the roar of chainsaws. “Speaking of Harlow, where is she?”
Not that I cared, because I didn’t. Not at all.
Corbin nodded his head towards the far end of the street. “Library. She said she wanted to lose herself in some books.”
It seemed that even in his human form, Corbin had a thing for worms—book or otherwise.
“Told her to meet us for lunch. Talked up your grilled cheese culinary expertise.” He smirked, knowing damn well that it was the one food that marginally lifted my mood.
