“Maybe if you hadn’t been coddling Selene for her whole life, she might have had a chance of escaping that raid.”
Ronin went preternaturally still. “What the fuck did you just say?”
She pushed the hood of her cloak back and shoved a finger into his chest. “You left her there in that cottage in Denevrae by herself for years. Living in her little bubble.”
“That was her choice!”
“Was it?”
Ronin’s hand was immediately at her throat. He dragged her off the bench and into a dark alley, slamming her into the wall.
Exactly the reaction she’d been seeking. Her thighs clenched even as her wolf whined,This might not be the smartest way to get what you want.
I thought you liked him dangerous and savage, Mireille responded.
Yeah, dangerously, savagelysexy. Notmurderous.
Mireille huffed a laugh.Same difference.
He snarled, gnashing his fangs so close to her throat that they grazed her skin. “Say that again. I fuckingdareyou.”
Mireille didn’t back down an inch. Pressed her neck against his hold. She loaded her gaze with every ounce of her hatred, of her longing, of her hurt and anger. His fingers jumped with her pulse.
Pushing down her feelings, pretending they’d been nothing to each other, wasn’t working.
Time to blow it all to fucking pieces and see where they landed.
She narrowed her eyes. “After two hundred years, you came here for your sister.” Tears spilled down her cheeks. She didn’t care that he saw it. “Not me.”
She felt wretched and stupid and selfish and pathetic that she wasjealousof Selene. A female who, by all accounts, was a good person. A kind person.
Far kinder than Mireille had ever been.
Sorrow cracked her voice. “Did you ever think about me? Even once?”
Ronin squeezed her throat harder, cutting off her breath as he leaned in closer.
His answer was a serrated blade, ripping through her vital bits. “I thought about you every minute, of every hour, of every fuckingday.Kind of hard not to after the damage you did.”
Salty tears dripped over her lips. “I told you I was sorry about your eye, Ronin, I?—”
He slammed her into the wall. Hard.
“It hasnothingto do with my eye!” His roar shook her bones. “You broke myheart, Mireille.” Softer. Shattered. “You broke my fucking heart.”
The words echoed off the cobblestones at her feet, the brick at her back. They died somewhere deep within her, buried beneath her ribs.
She lifted her chin, pushing her throat into his hand. Giving herself over to his wrath, she whispered, “Punish me for it.”
His golden-blue eye blazed with rage and that simmering lust she’d seen so often this past month. His claws punched out, piercing her skin, and blood trickled down her neck onto her cloak. “Is that what you want, little she-wolf?”
“Yes,” she breathed as her eyes slid closed.
His savage chuckle shivered across her limbs. “I don’t think you have the faintest fucking idea what you’re asking for. I won’t be gentle with you. I don’t give a shit about your pleasure. I’ll take whatever I want, and you’ll be a whimpering mess when I’m done with you.”
Creator save her, liquid heat gushed between her legs. “Then do it.” She wielded her words like a dagger. “You fucking coward.”
He snarled and spun her around, shoving her face against the brick. It caught her cheekbone, splitting skin, and she welcomed the pain. He tore off her cloak, ripped down her leggings, then sliced a claw through her panties. The ruined silk settled at her feet.
