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My voice trembled with anger and disbelief. “You’re acting like I’m some…some thing you can claim.”
His hand caught my jaw, firm but not painful. “You’re my mate.”
I swallowed hard. “Okay. Fine. Let’s say I believe that for two seconds. What does that even mean?”
His eyes held mine, unblinking. “It means your life is mine to protect. It means that if anything ever happens to you, nothing on this earth will save the destruction that I will bring.”
“That’s not…”
“It means you don’t walk alone anymore.” His voice roughened. “It means no one looks at you.”
I laughed, sharp and humourless. “Looks at me? You can’t control who looks at me, Viking.”
His expression turned cold in an instant. Then he smiled, and it was the kind of smile that didn’t belong on anyone human. “I don’t need to control who looks,” he said. “I control what happens after.”
A chill crawled up my spine at his answer, at the truth in his words. He leaned closer, voice low and certain. “If any man even thinks about putting his hands on you… he dies.”
My breath caught. “Stop saying that like it’s normal.”
“It’s normal for me.” He cupped the back of my neck, pulling me into his space until my pulse hammered against his palm. “You’re mine, Bryn.”
The way he said my name made my stomach flip, not from romance but from power. I forced myself to hold his gaze. “So how is this going to work then, hm? You being… you… and me being human?”
His stare sharpened. “You think I don’t know what you are?”
“I think you’re acting like it doesn’t matter.” My voice rose, frustration breaking through. “I’m not like you. I’m not some supernatural creature that can keep up with whatever the hell you are. I’m a girl with a boring job and rent to pay and friends who are going to wake up tomorrow and realize I’ve vanished!”
His face darkened at the word vanished, but then, slowly, his expression shifted into something dangerous. Protective, possessive.
“I will handle it.”
I scoffed. “Of course you will.”
“You don’t understand,” he said, voice tightening. “You’re thinking small. Safe.”
“Safe is literally what I want right now!”
His hand slid to my waist, grip firm. “Safe is what you get,” he said. “Because now you belong to me.”
I flinched at that, not because I didn’t want him but because I wanted him too much. And he saw it because his gaze softened for half a second, like he was fighting himself. Like he was trying to remember that I wasn’t built for his world.
Then he leaned down, mouth brushing my temple.
“You’re human,” he murmured. “Which means you’re fragile.” The word sounded like a vow in his mouth.
Then his lips found mine again, slow this time, possession threaded through tenderness, and I felt it all over again. That terrifying truth that I wasn’t falling anymore. The truth that the monster holding me was promising me a fresh new start, a dangerous start. But wasn’t that what I had been complaining about just earlier this evening, the monotonous life I currently had. I had been wishing for a change.
They do say, be careful what you wish for. Deep down, I was starting to suspect that this stud of a male before me, might be just what I have been craving in my life.
Chapter 6
Waking up should’ve been quiet but for me, it never was. I came out of sleep like a blade sliding from a sheath, senses snapping online instantly. The mansion was silent in the way old places always were, heavy with history and stone and secrets. The air smelled faintly of rain through open windows and polished wood.
My arm reached for her before my eyes even opened. Empty. The sheets beside me were cold, there was no warmth. No heartbeat fluttering under my palm.
My eyes snap opened. For a single second, my mind went blank with the kind of rage that doesn’t belong to men. Then it hit, the bond, the pull. I could sense she was in the mansion. Relief didn’t soften the anger, it sharpened it.
I was out of bed in one movement, bare chest exposed to the cold air, only my tracksuit bottoms hanging low on my hips. My feet hit the floor without sound as I crossed the room, every muscle tensed, every nerve lit.
