“We need to go back,” I said, trying to get up. “I can’t leave her there, he’s going to hurt her…”
“Sit!” Garrick barked. Alpha werewolf barks were particularly powerful, since they tended to form packs and needed the extra dominance. I followed his command wordlessly, but his control over me wouldn’t last for long. “You’re talking nonsense here. She can’t have two mates. It’s not possible.”
I finally grabbed my drink, downing the thing in one go, relishing the burn in my throat. “Do you think I’m making this up?”
“I mean, I don’t think you’re lying about how you feel, but…”
“Have you ever seen me react to a woman like this before?”
He sighed, taking another shot. “No.”
“Then what else could this be? They say you know, without a shadow of a doubt, when you recognize your mate. I recognized her. And she…”
Please fuck me, Ronan. Before I have to go back to him. I… I just want to know what it feels like.
I cursed as the realization hit me. “She might be his mate, but he’s not hers.”
She’d wanted to know what it felt like to sleep with your mate, because she’d never had before.
Garrick stared at me, his mind working around my words. “That doesn’t make any sense. Mate bonds are between two people, that’s it. Ordained by the gods themselves to bring different Magiks together, not to pit us against each other in some fucked up, cosmic love triangle.”
I grabbed the bottle in front of him and chugged, Garrick’s eyes wide in surprise. Once I finally felt it threaten to come back up, I stopped, gasping for air and wiping my lips.
“I don’t know,” I replied, my voice wet and raspy. “But it doesn’t stop the fact that she and I are mates, and he’s convinced himself she’s his. I have to get her back.”
Garrick sighed, putting a hand on my arm. “How? You got some secret army you’ve never told me about?” he asked with a pained laugh.
…he’s the Premier of Noctis. He’s too powerful. It will be impossible without an army…
Well…
I took out my phone, my hands shaking, scrolling through my contacts list.
Garrick leaned over, his brow furrowing as I stopped atKenzo Oniguro.
“Wait…theKenzo Oniguro?” he asked. I could hear the tremble in his voice. “How the hell do you know him?”
I didn’t answer the question.
Kenzo was the head of the Oniguro family, one of the three crime syndicates that ruled over Ignareth.
I’d wanted to erase his number for years, but something told me to keep it. In case he might one day repent for what he’d done to me, might one day see the error of his ways.
Instead, I was crawling right back to him. Just like he said I would.
But Sage was worth the price of my dignity.
Garrick stared at me in horror as my thumb hovered over the call button. “Wait, Ronan… think about this. You don’t want to be indebted to the Oniguros. Trust me, nothing good ever comes from working with them.”
I snorted. Did he think I wasn’t already perfectly aware of that?
I tapped the name, bringing the phone to my ear, each ring making my heart beat faster and faster. Garrick stared at me, confusion and worry etched in his hairy features.
The phone clicked.
“Well, well, well.”
The sound of his deep voice, even after all this time, still made me want to cower in fear. “Ten years of silence, and now you call me out of the blue, close to midnight. Something tells me you’re in trouble.”
