I hiss, clamping a hand to my hip.
Pulling back, I inspect my hand. Red.Blood.
I open my mouth as he surges forward, wrestling me into his arms, and we turn. Slamming my back into the tree trunk, he lifts me again, forcing my knees to lock around his waist.
My mind scrambles and I fight—like all those lessons Fee taught me. She was a woman caught with insidious men, and she made sure I learned how to fight back.
My fist catches his jaw and he snaps my wrist—not enough to break it, but to lose my strength, pinning it to the tree above my head. An ache so intense blooms across my mouth and I cry out in pain.
Smokey campfire and spice surround me and my fighting subsides slightly as I inhale. The panic leeches away, the adrenaline crashing as my mate holds my neck, cutting off my air.
He parts my skirt, fingers digging between my legs to discoverhow unbelievably wet I am. Kaden chuckles, pulling back his shadow magic, his party-mask still firmly attached.
“For someone so mad at me, your body is weeping without my cock between your legs.”
Glaring, I shove his shoulders, daring him to release me. He doesn’t.
Just pulls his fingers back, licking them so thoroughly, he thinks my essence will be the only thing to sustain him. I swallow and the prick winks.
“I am still mad at you. Put me down.”
“You walked away from me.” He adjust himself, ripping the skirt higher. He groans at seeing me barely clothed, the cool night air kissing my sensitive spots. “We weren’t done speaking.”
“I was done.”
“Max—”
“No,” I stress. “You do not get to decide what I want. I will not just accept your choices without being consulted.”
“You want to be consulted?” he asks, murmuring. “You want to be involved?”
“I demand it.” I thought I made that painfully clear after he took my choice away and claimed me as his mate.
Leaning close, his lips caress mine as he speaks. “Then tell me. How do I make amends for this slight? I don’t want to take the choice from you.”
“You think this is a joke?”
He smirks. “To someone else, it might be. To you? I know you’re serious.”
His hands travel up my legs, nails raking along my skin and I shudder. I’m uncomfortably wet—not for lack of trying to ignore it. The bond makes everything heightened.
I’m sure I could despise the Fae—and I have—yet, I would still welcome him back into my bed nightly.
“You’ve taken all my choices,” I argue, biting my lip. “You claimed me against my will. Kidnapped me. Claimed marriage without askingfirst. I thought after we were married, bound—after I saved you—I thought we would change.”
Because that’s what it comes down to. I wanted to have a voice and I thought I would. He made that clear when we took back the kingdom from Zelos. But it seems everything we’ve worked toward has fallen away.
“Did Aoife tell you something?”
He winces, eyes briefly shutting in pain.
“No, pet. She said nothing about us.”
“Because if she has?—”
“Max.” He holds my hips so tight, I’m sure I’ll have bruises. “You are all I want.”
“Then what is happening?”Because something changed.
