I literally crave his touch.
That contradiction sits heavy in my chest.
But it’s all a lie, isn’t it? After all, he forced his fangs deep into my skin without any care for what I wanted. He didn’t ask if I wanted him or his pack, he just took my body like it belonged to him.
Deep down I know it’s too late to change any of it, that we’re already mated, and it would just be easier to accept my fate, but the thought still needles sharper the longer it sits there.
"Tansy," Cass whispers my name as his large handcaresses between my breasts. His thumb drifts, stroking over one sensitive nipple before slipping lower and splaying across my belly. A possessive, comforting weight. His touch is so gentle. Concerned.
I look up at him, and the softness in his expression is gone, replaced by a flicker of concern. He's studying my face, his eyes searching mine.
"What's wrong?" he asks, his voice quiet but firm.
I shake my head, not wanting to enrage the alpha while he’s lodged inside me.
"I can feel that something's off in our bond." He shifts his hips slightly, and his knot presses deeper inside me, making me gasp. "Is your heat settling?"
It’s a pointless question because he already knows the answer.
He can feel it in our bond.
He’s inside my head now, feeling what I feel, a wildly intimate intrusion that can never be taken back.
“You’re in my head,” I grit out, unable to stop myself from sounding so angry. “You already know my heat is over.”
Cass’s brow furrows. He doesn’t move, but his focus sharpens, eyes narrowing at my face. “I know,” he says carefully. “But I can feel you winding up.”
“That’s none of your business,” I snap. The words come out sharper than I mean them to, but I don’t take them back. “You don’t get to monitor me.”
His jaw tightens a fraction. “It is my business,” he says. “You’re spiking. Anger. Fear. You’re pushing against our bond so hard that it’s starting to hurt.”
“That’s because you’re in my head,” I shoot back. “Because I can’t think without you feeling it. Because I don’t get a single private thought anymore.” My hands curlinto fists at my sides. “You didn’t ask if I wanted that. You just took it.”
Cass exhales slowly, like he’s trying to keep pace with me instead of cutting me off. “Tansy?—”
“You forced a bond,” I say, the words tumbling over each other now. “You forced your way into my body and my head and my life, and now you’re standing there acting all concerned like you didn’t do anything wrong.”
That’s when he stills completely.
Not angry. Not defensive. Just…frozen.
“I didn’t force shit,” he says, his voice low but steady. “You offered me your neck. I asked you if you were sure, and you said yes.” His eyes hold mine, unwavering.
The certainty in his tone knocks the breath out of me.
“That’s—” I start, ready to argue. “I didn’t?—”
And then it hits me.
A memory surfacing through the haze. Cass’s voice, rough but careful, asking me a question.
You want my mark?
My anger stutters, then falters entirely, shock quickly flooding in.
I remember it all now. The desperate, burning need. The way I begged for Cass to claim me, to make me his.
I remember arching my back, presenting my body to him like an offering, craving his knot with a hunger that bordered on pain.
