Page 451 of Eight of Swords, Part Two

‘You don’t even like me, Riley,’ he reminds him gently. ‘I will not cross that boundary.’

Despair threads through his heart.

Unwanted, rejected, alone.

No love, no pack, no cubs, no kin, no—

‘Bite me.’

‘Bite you?’

‘Yeah.’ Riley looks up, so desperate it hurts. ‘You… if you bite me…’

‘If I bite you, what?’ Vasily seems highly wary.

The thing inside whispers approval, bite-bond, yes.

‘It’ll… m-make me feel like we’re pack.’

‘What is pack?’

‘Family.’ His back teeth grind together. ‘Lovers.’

‘So like… bitey cuddle?’

‘Yes.’

‘You bite me first, then.’

‘What?’

‘I won’t bite you first.’

‘Why?’

Vasily lifts the hand from Riley’s lower back and gently cups his face.

‘Because your body keeps offering you to me, and I will not take what you did not choose to give.’ His thumb strokes Riley’s cheek. ‘You bite first. That is fair.’

‘But I’m…’ Riley’s bottom lip wobbles.

‘What?’

‘Disgusting.’

‘You are not disgusting,’ Vasily says firmly. ‘If bitey cuddle helps—’

‘It’ll bind us,’ Riley blurts out, cannot help but confess. ‘You shouldn’t d-do it.’ The thing inside him slashes at his insides for sabotaging their only chance to be safe. ‘I don’t know how but… it’ll bind us.’

‘Like a Knot?’

‘Something w-worse, probably, knowing me.’

‘But it would help you?’

‘Doesn’t matter.’

The pain spills blood down his nose, over his lips.