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I chuckled. “Yes, you did, but it wasn’t your fault, and you still saved me.”

He glanced at me, his throat working. “The way I treated you…I’m so fucking sorry, petal. You didn’t deserve that.”

My heart did a little flutter. “Thanks, but you don’t need to apologize. You thought I was…Selene. I understand why you did and said the things you did.”

He groaned. “Don’t remind me of the shit I said to you. It makes me sick to my stomach.”

I slid closer to him and ran my hand down his muscled forearm. “It’s okay.”

He said nothing for a few minutes, his breathing rough like he was trying to regain his control.

“Are you okay?”

“No.” He glanced at me. “I’ll never forgive myself for the way I treated you.”

My heart beat harder, faster. The way he looked at me, the things he was saying. He cared. He did. There was no mistaking it for anything else. “Well, I forgive you.”

The muscles in his jaw clenched. “I don’t deserve it, but I’ll take it, Iris, and be fucking thankful.”

The cab grew quiet again. I kept my hand on his arm. I couldn’t quite seem to let him go.

“So, what was Sartori talking about back there?” he asked after several more minutes. “Your mother’s request?”

Crap. I’d forgotten all about that. I had no option but to tell him the truth. “Mom appealed the council’s decision. She requested they revoke their approval of your request for restitution.”

The muscle under my hand went rock solid.

“It was the day after we mated. I didn’t know she was going to do it.”

“They’re going to try to take you away from me?”

I thought I knew how he sounded when he was angry, but I’d been wrong. Rage rolled off him now, thick and brutal.

“Draven…”

He jerked the wheel to the right, leaving the tree-lined road and swerving into a shadowed area surrounded by towering pines that blocked out the moon. He turned to me, and I could barely see his face, but his eyes glowed bright green and were utterly fierce.

“I will kill the entire council before I let them take you away from me,” he said, and the way he sounded, I knew his canines had extended.

I swallowed, my mouth dry, my pulse thudding wildly at my throat. “Draven…”

“Do you want that, Iris? Do you want them to take you away from me?” The fierceness in his voice lifted goose bumps all over my skin. “Do you want to return to your old life, one without me in it?”

As he said those words, my heart screamed out what my mind had been trying desperately to suppress.

Against all odds and everything we’d been through, I’d fallen for the broken male staring at me like his life depended on my answer, and there was no way I could say anything but the truth. “No, I don’t want to leave you.” I shook my head. “My mother only appealed the council’s decision because she thought she was protecting me from something I didn’t want.”

What I’d felt for Brody was nothing compared to how I felt about the male sitting across from me. Because this was real. How Draven treated me, the way he touched me, and spoke to me, looked at me, was real. My heart raced faster. “But even if they approved it tomorrow, I wouldn’t leave you, because I choose you, Draven, as my mate, and because I…I’ve fallen for you,” I said, laying myself bare. “I’m in love with you.”

He stared at me, eyes wild, breathing hard, but said nothing.

Oh god.

I couldn’t believe I’d said it out loud. The realization had hit so hard, the words had just poured out. What was I thinking? I dropped my gaze, unable to hold his another moment.

He made a sound that was raw and full of desperate need. A sound that came straight from his beast. My gaze shot back to his, and he hooked me around the back of the neck, fingers delving into my hair, and his mouth came down hard on mine. He kissed me like the world was about to end. Like a male kissed the female he loved and wouldn’t survive being parted from.

I whimpered into his mouth.