Page 43 of Titan’s Mate

Finally he raised his head. “I tried so hard,” he said. He turned his gaze towards the bare grave under the trees. “That grave, over there, where I found you the first night? That’s Austin Raines, the rogue panther who led the attack on my village. The one who slaughtered them all. Just to get our magical artifacts, that the Draken gave us when they created us.”

Mari got a little chill. He’d brought his people’s killer here and buried him next to their memorial. Why?

There was another long silence. “It took me two years to track Raines to Farville. I was crazy for a while—my bear went feral. And when I came out of it… well, I guess I never really did. I was…” He shook his head. “Obsessing over killing Raines, so I maybe could be sane again.”

She slid her hand between his bent knees and his chest, resting it on his heart. “But Brock said you didn’t kill him, after all.”

He shook his head. “Brandon did, by invoking the crew bond to fight the compulsion power of the artifact he was using. Misusing,” he corrected himself. After another silence he said softly, “I was pissed at Brandon, at first.”

He finally turned and looked at her, his eyes flashing red. “I wanted to kill him.”

She nodded, holding his gaze. She wasn’t judging. She couldn’t.

“But I grabbed his soul,” he said with fierce, quiet satisfaction. “I grabbed his fucking soul, and I sent it to the same hell he sent my people to. And then I brought his body here and buried it under a stone that holds every spell I know for keeping him there.”

Mari swallowed hard. That’s why the grave made her feel queasy. It held the body of an evil man, tormented by demons, his soul trapped by an angry, vengeful shaman.

Not that he didn’t deserve it. But she wondered what having it here was doing to Titan.

Maybe he had to let Raines go, and his people along with him. But this wasn’t the time to say it.

Titan continued, his story spilling out of him. “At first, after Raines was gone, I felt—empty. My whole life had been taken up with finding him, killing him, so when I didn’t have that, I had nothing left.”

“Except the crew,” she said softly. She wondered if they knew they’d saved his life.

“Yeah. I never meant to get caught up in their bond, but I was. Except,” he paused, a weight coming over his words. “It’s hard to be with them. They all have mates, and they’re so… happy. And they don’t know about my family. I mean, they know Raines killed them, but they don’t know the rest. Only Brock does.”

And now her. She felt honored by his trust—and sad that it was necessary. “And then I just barged in and asked you to help me, the way you couldn’t help your people. I’m so sorry.” Tears trickled down her face.

“I’m not.”

She’s turned to him in surprise. “You’re… you’re not?”

He faced her, and slowly raised his big hand to her face, trailing his fingers lightly over her skin like she was fragile and precious. “Nobody’s ever made me feel the way you make me feel. You’re like a ray of sunshine in a dark place.” That faint smile she loved curved the corner of his mouth. “A bright yellow rubber duckie in a dark muddy swamp.”

That made her smile through her tears.

He went on, “But I’m afraid I’m going to lose you too. What if I can’t save you? And if I don’t, what if I can’t save your soul?”

She didn’t want him carrying that burden. “I don’t know,” she said honestly. “I just know that nobody ever made me feel the way you do, either. You bring back the joy I thought I’d lost. Every minute with you is precious. I don’t want to waste it. I don’t want to die with regrets.”

In one movement he unfolded and lifted her so she was straddling his lap, their arms around each other. It felt like coming home to a warm house on a cold day. She whispered, “What are we going to do?”

He rested his forehead on hers. “I think we should choose ‘no regrets.’ I think we should choose joy.”

A ray of sunshine in a dark place. A bright yellow rubber duckie in a swamp. “I think so too.”

Chapter 18

He cupped her face in his hands, running his thumbs gently across her cheeks. “You’re so beautiful,” he said. “The very first time I saw you, I thought you were the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. And I wanted to kiss you.”

She smiled at him, looking into those mysterious, far-seeing eyes. He saw things she didn’t see, made her feel things she didn’t know were possible.

And he also loved when she messed with him. “Wasn’t I unconscious?” she asked innocently.

That made him smile, like she knew it would. “That’s why I didn’t.” He tangled his fingers in her hair. “Because I’m told it’s pervy to kiss unconscious women.”

“Mmm,” she said, running her fingers through his hair again. “Will you still respect me if I confess something to you? Something super-pervy?”