“Leave me alone. I’ll go to her. She’s what I need.”
“You will go nowhere,” Creed says as if it’s final. As if he is any more a King than I am.
“Don’t make me gut you, brother.”
“You’re too weak to even try.”
“My mate is waiting for me!” I snarl, chest heaving as I tear free and push to my feet. “You can’t keep me from her! You can’t—”
“Don’t you get it, you blind fucking bastard?” Creed slams me back, eyes white fire, words splitting the room in half. “You don’t have a mate, Legend. It isn’t fucking real!”
My muscles lock tight and the room grows dead silent.
My knees buckle before I can stop them. One slams the floorhard enough that I feel bone grind. My hands curl into fists against the boards, nails biting through my palms until they drip. The taste of copper floods my mouth.
“You lie, brother.”It has to be a lie.
Creed’s stare never wavers. “You’re being fooled. Trapped.”
The moment he says it, the bond pulls—hard enough to make my chest ache like it’s splitting down the center. He’s wrong.
I canfeelher.
He’s fucking wrong.
“She is my mate.” My jaw snaps, spit and blood stringing the air.
Creed’s gaze dips to the black river running from my nose down my chest. “You’re bleeding into a place none of us can reach. That bond is a noose, not a tether. It’s tightening and it won’t stop until it’s drained you dry.”
“I will end you if you try to keep me from her.” I stagger. My spine groans but I rise, inch by brutal inch, until I’m upright again. My vision blurs, but I don’t look away. “She. Is.Mine.”
“Breathe, Legend.” Knight snarls, restraining me, my body thrashing in his grip. His glare cuts to Creed like it could flay him open. “You. Explain. Now before I help him hurt you.”
Creed slowly shakes his head. “Knight.”
“No,” Knight argues back. “I know the feeling of a partial bond. Of thinking my mate is gone or hurt or that someone dared to take her from me. I felt my Ethos rage. My mind slip and body weaken. I know the power of a mating bond. You don’t. So start fucking talking, brother, or I’m done hearing about this.”
“Too much information might—”
“Say it.”
Creed is quiet for too fucking long before he finally speaks.
“Don’t forget what I can do.” Creed leans forward, bringing himself inches from my face, and speaks slowly. “I’ve been inside your head, brother. I’ve dug every corner of your mind since youbrought that girl back here. I know where you hide things. I’ve walked the corridors you’re too fucking weak to see right now, but I see. I know. And it is my job to fix this. Fixyou.”
“I am not broken. I am missing half of my god damn soul!” I rage.
“Exactly!” He screams back, shoving to his feet as he looks around. “How do you guys not see it?”
“We can’t fucking read minds,” Knight snaps, and there’s a tremor in it that’s part anger and part bone-deep fear. He’s up in Creed’s face faster than I can blink, like he wants to tear the truth out of him with his bare hands. “Tell us everything.”
Creed straightens, eyes glittering. “I will tell you what you need to know,” he says, calm as a razor. “Not what you want.”
“Fuck that,” Sinner spits, the words like a match. He steps forward, yanking London with him. “Shield us.”
London’s eyes snap to mine before going to her mate’s.
Knight gives a curt nod, and then their lips are moving, but their words become wind in my ears.
