I blinked at the rapid switch between mindless monster to a sentient creature. Levicy’d done a real number on him. He wasn’t nearly as stable as I thought. Then again, who would be?
His teeth grinded together as he waited impatiently for my response.
“You’re the one who wants me to eat. Why should I help you force feed me something I didn’t ask for?” I was sick of doing that. Someone else made decisions for me and then I had to make it work.
“Stop comparing me to those humans who harmed you. I’m not them.” His growl grew louder.
“That’s a wild statement from someone who compares me to Levicy Rinah.”
“I’m not even a man.” His eyes narrowed at me. The parallel annoyed him more than he would probably ever admit.
I snorted. Other than a few moments ago, he was more man than monster. If he was a simple beast, me and him would get along fine.
“Will you please start this fire so I can cook your food?” A threatening growl left him, and he snapped his teeth at me.
I leaned forward to make sure he could hear me. “No.”
“You’re my mate. Ihaveto take care of you!” He tossed the destroyed sticks out of the nest, and they hit the water with a loud plop.
It was the first time he admitted it, and I’d hoped that nagging in the back of my mind was wrong. The admission was nothingmore than the cherry on top, yet everything grew still as if the words cracked a hole in the center of the world.
“I don’t want to be your mate.”
“I don’t want you as a mate either,” he told me. “But you messed up and now we are tethered to each other for eternity.”
“I refuse.”
“You don’t get to refuse.” He chuckled darkly, as if he’d been trying to refuse the entire time. Underneath his irritation, need bubbled at the center. The need for me to be okay. A little voice in his head said that he was desperate to appease. “At this point we learn to tolerate.”
His insistence that I eat wasn’t about me. This was selfishly motivated to makehimmore comfortable.
As if I gave a fuck about his comfort.
He stood up, grabbed me by my hair, and dragged me over to his makeshift firepit. I yelped when some of the hair ripped from my scalp, and his hold softened enough to save the rest. “Start the fire!”
I spat on his foot. He snarled, but before he could take action my insane laughter stopped him in his tracks. “But you aren’t like them at all, right?”
They all say that. It was almost never true.
I could swear a dark blush went over his green cheeks and he put space between us. “What about you, Rinah witch? Your family sent you to kill me.”
I threw my head back and laughed even harder. “I don’t have any family.”
“You are a direct descendant of the Rinah family.”
“My mom died when I was five.” I finally stopped laughing. “I came here to do research to have this place declared a wildlife sanctuary. But how rich to think everything is about you.”
We both stared at each other with the mistrust embedded inside us by others.
I reached in my bag to grab a lighter and a bundle of tinder. I tossed it into his makeshift pit and the dry pieces of wood ignited. “That’s not for you. I’m cold.”
I went back to where I’d been resting before he pulled me over and sat propped up against the spikey bone wall for support, letting the jabs against my back remind me that I didn’t want to be here. Just in case he made me forget.
He growled, but after a long moment sloppily skinned the mink with his claws. Blood poured onto the ground as he did so and he twisted the head with his bare hands. The sickening crack made me nauseous.
It’s not that different from using a knife,I reminded myself. It was probably more of the imagery that he could rip my skull as easily, if he wanted.
He was quiet as he cleaned out the organs and set up a makeshift spit. No growling or grumbling. I couldn’t even feel any strong emotions coming from him.
