She startled slightly, her head snapping toward me.
“The truth. All of it.” I stepped closer, forced her back against the wall of the narrow hallway outside our suite. My hands came up automatically, bracing on either side of her shoulders. Not touching her. Not yet.
But close enough that she could feel my presence. My body heat. My breath.
“You have not slept,” I continued quietly. “You barely eat. And when I touch you, you flinch.”
Her eyes widened. A small betrayal of guilt.
“What happened yesterday, Tori?” My voice softened despite the tension building in my chest. “What are you hiding from me?”
For a moment she said nothing. Her throat worked as she swallowed, and I saw the shine of tears gathering in her eyes—tears she stubbornly refused to let fall.
Her chin lifted. Defiant. That small, fierce gesture twisted something deep inside my chest.
“I don’t know what to do.” The admission landed between us like a fragile thing.
“Tell me.” I leaned closer, unable to stop myself now. “Now.” The beast edged into my voice despite my efforts to keep it controlled. “You are my mate. Your pain is my pain. Your fear is my fear.” My nostrils flared as I drew in another breath. “And I can smell both on you.”
She closed her eyes. Her breath hitched. For a moment I thought she might refuse.
“Tori.” I finally moved, cupping her face gently. I brushed my thumbs across her cheekbones, catching the warmth of her skin. The softness of her. “You are mine to protect. To care for. To love. Allow me to do so. Please.”
The last word felt unfamiliar on my tongue, and I had to fight the beast to get it past our lips. He wanted to press her to the wall and fuck her until she submitted completely. Surrendered her heart. Her soul. Her secrets.
Fuck off. She would fight you. You would lose her trust.
The beast snorted in disgust. You are weak. Protect our mate. Demand she speak.
If Tori hadn’t been looking at me like the slightest touch would make her shatter like broken glass, I would have laughed at the asshole. Instead, I ignored him and focused on my female. My mate. The only fucking thing on this planet that mattered to me. “Tori. Talk to me. Let me help you.”
The dam broke. “Derek.” The name fell from her lips like poison.
Every muscle in my body went still as I waited.
“He cornered me,” she continued quietly. “In the hallway.”
The world narrowed. My hearing sharpened. My pulse slowed to a deadly, deliberate rhythm. I was going to kill that fucking male. I knew this, had scented his presence. It wasn’t his presence that would get him killed. It was the pain in her eyes.
No male was allowed to make my mate feel weak. Fearful. Vulnerable.
The beast snarled. Should have killed him in the church. A flash of memory, of the large candle holder the idiot male had swung at my head, appeared with the beast’s impatience behind it. He attacked us. In front of our mate. Crush his skull.
Quiet. The command had no mercy. We must know what the foolish male has done.
“He was waiting for me.”
My hands tightened slightly against her jaw before I forced them to relax. Every word she spoke put me more firmly on the beast’s side of this argument. How the fuck did that little asshole know where she was?
“What did he do?” The question came out rough, dragged from somewhere deeper than my throat. “If he hurt you?—”
“He threatened you.” Her eyes snapped open, fierce and blazing. “Not me. You.”
For a moment I didn’t understand the words.
Then they sank in. I burst out laughing. The ridiculous little human thought he could hurt me? Me?
Fuck. Him. Pitiful. Small. Weak.
