It makes me want to set the entire cavern on fire just to remind her who she belongs to.
The pretty one swallows hard. “I…Legend?”
I bare my teeth. “King Legend,” I correct him. “You’re lucky you still breathe, now run along, little Argent,” I purr. “Before I send you to meet your mother.”
The little fuck, Zeke, dares to glare at me. But I can’t focus on him right now, as much as I want to rip him to shreds on principle alone.
With a flick of my hand I send him flying, my attention now on her face.
My mate’s hand presses to her temple, just as a thin line of blood spills from her nose, bright red against the pearl sheen of her skin. My body moves before my brain can think, crossing the distance, hauling her into me like she’ll vanish if I don’t.
“What the fuck is that?” she mutters, swiping at the blood, but I feel it. Gods, I feel it. The bond convulsing, spinning and shredding, tearing at the edges like reality itself is unraveling.
Likesheis unraveling.
The sight of her blood makes my teeth ache. My chest claws inward, heat searing straight through the tether. She thinks it’s just magic, some side effect of her power, as latent as it is at the moment. Maybe even the Argent.
But I know what I’m feeling, and she must be too.
Starvation.
Our bond is starving. She doesn’t understand the pull between us so she mistakes it for nothing at all. She mistakes need for weakness.
And now it makes her bleed, just like it’s been eating away at my energy.
I mean, what else could it be?
My lips curl. “Careful, little monster. You keep fighting the bond, it’ll rip you apart.”
Her laugh is brittle, defiant. “I’d have to feel it for that to happen. Which I don’t.”
“You feel me.”
“I feel…nothingfor you.”
The thought makes me unhinged.
I drag my thumb across her jaw, smearing the blood. “Keep saying that. But your body knows. Your bones know. And when you break—because you will—I’ll be right there to bear witness. And when you reach for me, begging me to put you out of your misery, I will do it without hesitation,” I promise.
There’s a flicker of something in her gaze but it fades far too quickly, and then she jerks back. “Fuck off.”
And I grin, wide, feral, manic. “Oh, I plan to. All over you.”
Her pulse thrashes against me, furious. She claws at my chest, shoving hard, but it only makes me laugh. “Go ahead. Fight me. Bite me. Wonder how I’d feel if you bit someone else…”
Her nostrils flare, her teeth flashing like she might do it.
My cocky grin sharpens into something darker. “Pull some shit again, and I’ll show you exactly what it means to be mine.”
Behind me, the cavern begins to groan—sirens scattering as runes flare bright along the bones overhead, warning wards screaming of breach.
My head snaps over my shoulder, seeking out the threat, but I spot nothing, and when I face forward again, Haide is gone.
That same smell from before burns my nostrils.
Rot, hot and fuming.
“Damn that little brat.”
