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The way she could spit fire after what we’d just done…It nearly drove me insane, I try to keep my temper from snapping the room in half, but I can feel the fire rising through my veins.

I sat back, forcing air into lungs that didn’t need it. “You don’t understand what’s happening,” I said, voice low. “I’m not asking.”

That was when she shot up, wrapping the sheet around herself like it could shield her from me. “You don’t get to not ask.”

My eyes followed her movement, tracking every inch of her, my instincts snarling when she put distance between us. “I’ll be leaving in the morning,” she declared.

My head turned slowly, my voice came out lethal. “No, you won’t.”

She blinked. “Excuse me?”

“There will be men guarding every exit,” I said, each word sharpened to a point. “And you are not leaving this house.”

Her eyes widened, then narrowed. Oh, there it was, the fury. It looked like Bryn Carter didn’t cower, perfect.

“Are you serious?” she snapped. “You can’t just imprison me!”

I rose from the bed, the air changed like the room itself understood what I was. Her breath caught, but she didn’t back down. Even naked, even marked, she didn’t flinch and that made me want her all over again. And also…It made me want to roar.

“I’m protecting you,” I bit out.

“I didn’t ask for protection!”

“You didn’t know you needed it,” I snapped back.

Her eyes flashed. “You don’t know what I need.”

A lie, I knew what she needed because her body had told me in every sound she’d made. Her pulse had begged for me, her scent had turned sweet and frantic every time I touched her. She was already bound to me in ways her mind couldn’t accept yet, but her temper clearly didn’t care about bonds. She stepped closer, voice shaking with fury. “How is this even supposed to work, Viking?”

That name on her tongue did something to me. Something feral. She continued, stabbing the air with the corner of the sheet like it was a weapon. “You’re not even staying in this country. You’ve got brothers, enemies, whatever. And I live here, I have a job, a life. What exactly are you expecting?”

I opened my mouth and realized I didn’t have an answer that wouldn’t turn into an order because the truth was simple. I expected her to come with me, I expected her to choose me, I expected her to accept the bond as naturally as breathing, but humans didn’t work like that, and apparently neither did Bryn.

She looked at me like I was insane, like she still couldn’t reconcile the monster with the man who’d kissed her until she forgot her own name.

My temper flared hot, fast, volcanic. “Understand one thing, you’re mine,” I growled. “That’s what I’m expecting.”

Her voice rose. “I’m not!”

The argument ignited like petrol. One wrong word and everything went up.

Bryn stood in front of me wrapped in nothing but a sheet and rage, cheeks flushed, throat marked, eyes so bright with fury it almost stunned me. She should’ve looked breakable like that. She didn’t, she looked like a woman ready to bite back. “I’ll be leaving in the morning,” she said, voice shaking with stubborn certainty. “I don’t care what you think you are, or what you think this means.”

My eyes narrowed. “You’re not leaving.”

The air shifted. Her chin lifted. “Excuse me?”

“You walk out of this room; you will be stopped.”

She stared at me like I’d grown another head. Then her expression twisted into disbelief. “You can’t be serious,” she breathed.

“I’ve never been more serious about anything in my life.”

She laughed once, sharp and humourless. “You are out of your mind.”

I took a step toward her. She didn’t back up. “If you knew what was out there,” I said, voice dropping, “you would thank me.”

“I didn’t ask you to save me!”