Fuck.I was already growing wet at the idea, my pussy swelling with unsatisfied demands once more.
“So I guess you didn’t want me earlier,” I managed to say instead of something nearly feral with lust.
To avoid looking at him, I stared upward at the cavernous ceiling far, far above, watching the orblight filter down, brightening the city bit by bit.
“What?”
“You know, when you left me.In a cage.”
Caz was silent. “I already told you. I … freaked out. Okay? There. I wasn’t at the market looking for a mate. I didn’t think I was ready. Certainly not—”
He cut himself off, but it was too late. I knew what he’d meant.
“Certainly not … certainly notwhat? Not a clippy in a cage?” I scoffed, mocking him angrily as I finally looked at him, meeting his green eyes with a glare. “Well, guess what. I’m a dirty, broken clippy, Caz. Sorry to disappoint you.”
The snarl that ripped from his throat made the very air around us vibrate with his anger. “Donotspeak about yourself that way. Nothing about you is dirty, and I willneverfind you that way.”
Alpha power poured off him in waves as he stared at me. Far more of it than he’d ever let show before. I heard shouts from the courtyard below. Glancing down, I saw several shifters folding to one knee. Even Ri, who was addressing a group of them, seemed to be straining to stay upright.
“I don’t care about what you are,” Caz ground out in the silence that followed, not bothering to rein in his power.
Instead, he let it flow out, let me feel it all, every bit of him as he unveiled it in full. He cast back the hold he had on it, and on his cloak, at long last to let me truly see him for the first time.
I stared at the glorious face of my supposed mate. The long, lean lines of his face, highlighted by the brilliant platinum-silver shock of hair tumbling down in perfect waves from his head. The vivid green eyes I’d already fallen in love with living under a pair of bushy eyebrows that perfectly framed the rest of his face, cut with lines from a diamond edge.
He was stunning, and he was also flattening every shifter around with the display of power, such as I had never felt or suspected possible from one of our kind. Whoever he was, Caz wassomeone important, and he couldn’t hide that anymore
He was alsoinsanelystrong. I’d never felt alpha power like this. Even the elite from the market earlier was nothing compared to him.
Unfortunately for Caz, all unleashing it did to me was make me feel bathed in soothing comfort. It certainly suggested he was my mate. Everything I knew about a mate bond said his power was meant to protect me, never to hurt.
“But youdidcare,” I pointed out, struggling to get back on topic while staring at him. “You left me there to make a fool of myself because of what I was.”
“You’re misremembering,” he said stiffly. “Mostly. It was a shock, yes. But … I came to my senses.”
There was more tothatstory, for sure, but now wasn’t the time.
“Misremembering?” I said, making my disbelief very,veryclear. I crossed my arms over my chest and waited for him to explain.
“Yes. Because I can’t just think about myself.”
I rolled my eyes. “Is this where you tell me that it’susnow because we’re fated mates? Cute, but it won’t work.”
“No.” He shook his head. “Well, it is, but that isn’t what I was thinking of. I was meaning that others will care what you are.”
“Others? So? What does that matter? They aren’t mated to me.”
You are.I didn’t say it, but I certainly thought it.
Caz looked like he’d bitten into a rotten fruit. “It matters a lot for me, unfortunately.” He sighed. “But I did come back for you, Anna. And I will never run from you. Ever again. I swear this. No matter how difficult it gets, if you want me, I will be there. I do not want to risk losing you again.”
I licked my lips nervously.
“And I will find your friends for you. I will have the market scoured. I will search long and far if they are gone. I will use every ounce of my power to have them brought to my home and cared for.” He gestured behind him.
I turned for the first time to look at his home. I’d been too preoccupied with the panorama of the city to notice.
The balcony we were on didn’t grant me much help. The tall, arched doorway bespoke money, as did the furnishing in the room behind. A lot of money, I revised a second later. But a large overhanging roof prevented me from seeing much more. I turned back to the city, trying to figure out where we were.
