I strained toward him, trying to sink my teeth into the soft flesh of his throat. “I’mnotyours!”
“See, that’s where you’re wrong,” he said, and with very little effort, thrust me back, laughing when I landed on the couch in a graceless heap of tangled skirts. “You’ve been mine since the day Tritan fell. We’re a matched set, you and I.” Collecting a leather strap off the back of a winged chair, he looped the belt around his waist, then tucked his sidearm into the holster at his hip. “And now? No one can claim otherwise, no matter how displeased they might be with the outcome.”
Emotion wrapped a frigid fist around my windpipe, clenching hard enough to choke any witty rebuttal—but I swallowed it back.
Now wasnotthe time for tears and weakness.
Kas would not simply lay down and die ifshewere crippled. No. There was always another way out. Even without my ki, even maimed and broken, I’d find a way.
Ihadto.
I glanced at the door without moving my head, swiping at the trail of wetness marking my cheeks.
He sidestepped, blocking my path. “Go ahead and try it, pet. Even if you could manage to get free, you can’t hide fromme, little girl. Not anymore. Never again.”
Cornered, I did the only thing I could think of, the only thing Icoulddo without my ki—I punched him in the solar plexus and dove past his hip.
With little more than a grunt, he caught me about the middle, wrapping one thick arm over my ribs, the other around my throat. “Come now, violence isn’t the answer.”
“You’re asoldier,” I snarled, squirming against his hold. “You deal in violence and death.” I planted an elbow in his belly, using all my might in an attempt to gain the upper hand.
He hefted me off my feet and tossed me on a great bed with dark sheets. “Says the woman covered in scars who murdered my best friend.”
Scrambling to get my feet beneath me, I backed away, not stopping until I found the headboard. “Yes,” I replied, droll. “I’m sure Marco’s death was excruciating for you, given how impressively spry he is today. For a dead man. And for the record”—I flexed my right hand, flaunting the twisted, branded skin I’d won at our first meeting—“I amhonoredto wear these marks.”
A deep chuckle rumbled through the room as he approached the bed, blocking my path to the door. “That’s sweet, Mila. I’m touched. Really,” he murmured, touching the mirror image of the spot where I felt him in my chest. “I can’t tell you how much it pleasesmeto know you’re honored to wear my mark.”
“That’s not—” I plunged my branded fist into the bedsheets, cheeks searing hot. “Not what I meant.”
He laughed, lunging for my arm, but I threw myself in the opposite direction. Strong fingers circled my ankle instead, yanking me back from the edge of the mattress. Before I could muster any real fight, his grip was tangled in my hair, bodyweight pinning me to the mattress, skirts riding high on my thighs.
“Get off—”
“Relax, Priestess.”
“Fuck you!”
Long fingers traced the hollow at the base of my throat. Traced the collar.
A shiver raced through my blood as I tried to heft his bulk off me, twisting away from the weapon digging into my belly. But I had no leverage, pinned as I was, and tried to twist away, voice a breathy whisper. “Stop.Stop.”
Face flushed, his fingers tightened in my hair, words hot against my cheek. “Miss Tannovic—”
“You willnotcall me that!”
Chest heaving, he sat back on his haunches—perched on my hips—running a hand through dark hair. Adjusting his sidearm. “You’re myslave. I’ll call you whatever I want.”
A tiny, fragile hiccup popped free of my lips before I could choke it down. And so, “Please, release me,” held a note of piteous begging, instead of an enraged command. Mortified and holding back sobs, I clawed at the gold bonded with my skin, leaving ragged trails of red everywhere my touch landed. Choking back ragged screams.
He simply gathered my wrists and put his weight into them. Stilling my fight. “And where will you go? Will the forest recognize its mistress without her ki?”
With that, what little remained of my composure shattered, and I reached again for that which was no longer mine to wield.
“You belong to me now,” he whispered, “and that belonging comes with my protection. You’ll be cared for, Mila.”
“I don’t need your protection,” I hissed through clenched teeth, blinking away those damnable tears. “I will not be used as a weapon by you or your men. I would rather die.”
With a sigh, he rolled off me and gathered a black button up shirt, shrugging into it and hiding his sidearm from sight. “You needn’t worry on that account. I don’t intend to share.”
