“It means that you’re attractive to my beast. It finds you compatible in some way.”
Primal attraction related to procreation and the production of the strongest possible Therianthrope offspring. If a female Thrope took a male lover who wasn’t a Thrope, their children would be Thropes, but if a Thrope male took a female lover who wasn’t a Thrope, then there was no guarantee of that. So, his primal side wanting me made no sense. It wouldn’t take that risk. But the primal was just as influenced by a Thrope’s human instincts as the human was by the beast within. Drayven’s desires could affect his beast just as strongly as his beast’s desires affected him. Which meant…it wasn’t the beast that wanted me, it was Drayven.
He was attracted to me. “Drayven…”
He must have seen the comprehension on my face. His chest vibrated with a rumble, and he looked away. “By the blood, you’re too damn smart.”
“Have you felt this way before?”
A look of pain ghosted across his beautiful face. “Once. A long time ago.”
My chest tightened. “Who was she?”
“Her name was Brenna, but she’s gone now. She was killed.” He cleared his throat. “I… Uh… I’ll walk you back to Bramble.”
He obviously didn’t want to talk about it. “It’s fine. I can go myself.”
“Are you sure?”
The fact he didn’t insist told me that he needed some space. “It’s just across campus.” I smiled, but he had his head bowed again and didn’t see it. “I’ll see you tomorrow night.”
I left him to his thoughts because I had plenty of my own to occupy me now.
* * *
I was sodeep in my own head about Drayven, about his mate and his unwanted attraction to me, that I failed to sense I was being followed until I was trapped in a cold iron grip and shoved into the arch beneath the barracks.
Sterling blocked my path, his body coiled with tension, like a cat preparing to strike.
Fear twisted in my belly before I reminded myself that he had no real power to hurt me. “What the Fel do you want?”
“I want you to die,” he said.
My pulse fluttered hard in my throat. “Yeah, sorry, not happening.” I made to push past him, but he slammed a fist into my chest, driving me into the wall. My head whipped back then forward, and my teeth caught my tongue. The tang of iron filled my mouth, breath rushing out of my lungs, as heat bloomed across my breastbone.
His nostrils flared. “You’re bleeding.”
I blinked back the black spots clouding my vision. “And you’re an asshole.”
He moved in closer, and I shrank back on instinct before I could stop myself.
“Good,” he hissed. “You should be scared.”
I dragged in a breath, forcing my pulse to steady. “I’m not scared of you.”
He chuckled, mirthless and cold. “Yes, you are. And you should be.” He braced a hand on the brick above my head, caging me in and clouding the air with his linen-fresh scent. “I’ve been restrained. Patient. Waiting for the grading to have you put in your place once and for all—because you’re nothing but a stain on humanity, a murderer just like your ancestor. It should have beenyourhead under my blade that night.Yourblood on my hands.”
My eyes burned with rage. “Yeah? But instead, you killed my father! You broke the law. There should have been a trial and?—”
His hand was around my throat before I could react, squeezing tight enough to cut off my words.
“You think a few lessons with Thorn will help you?” He pressed me against the wall, my bones grinding against brick, his grip on my throat tightening enough to choke. Panic burst in my chest. I clawed at his hand, lungs desperate for breath.
Oh, Trinity, he was going to do it. He was going to break his oath and finish what he’d started on the training field. He was going to kill me.
His eye twitched, and he released me with a rough laugh that made the hairs on my nape quiver.
I sucked in air, chest heaving in blissful breaths, relief pumping so hard through my oxygen-starved veins that I almost didn’t hear his next words.
