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“She doesn’t know your family rejected you, alpha. And she’ll do the same to you once she’s done—she’ll break you and you’ll be all alone again!”
Breath strangled in Cortana’s throat at the admission. Riaz’s family had rejected him? Was that why he reacted so strongly when she lashed out? How long had he been alone after they’d abandoned him?
The piece of his past clicked into place as her mind whirled. Thinking of the strong man before her being wounded and alone, rejected, was a lance to her heart.
Fury awoke at the realization, the visceral emotion quaking within her. Her fangs descended at the thought of her mate being hurt—by her or anyone else. Riaz was hers to care for, hers to love. The fact that he’d been wounded in the past by someone who supposedly loved him shattered her into a thousand pieces.
Riaz shifted uneasily on his feet, and somehow, she knew the alpha was aware she’d awoken. “I won’t be alone, Ren. You’ll be with me.”
Disgust and revulsion turned her stomach, barreling through their unfinalized mating bond with such potency Cortana nearly gagged.
A happy noise escaped from Renata, and in the next moment, a set of hands wrapped around Riaz’s waist. “We’ll be happy together: I just know it.”
Cortana didn’t waste any more time.
In one fell swoop, she’d leapt off the bed and landed behind Riaz’s turned back, snatching the gun from Renata’s grip. The she-wolf screeched, twisting out of the alpha’s grip. Upon seeing that the vampire held the gun level with her heart, the other woman slowed, eyes widening with a crazed look that Cortana would remember the rest of her immortal life.
“Stand down, Renata. This doesn’t have to end poorly.”
The she-wolf was beginning to shake with the urge to shift, her green eyes pools madness. “You’ve poisoned his mind against me, vampire!”
“Werewolves are immune to suggestion.” Cortana inclined her chin. “He fell in love with me—and I fell in love with him because we’re meant to be together.”
Shifting seamlessly into her tawny-colored wolf, Renata lunged for the vampire’s throat. Cortana deftly avoided the attack, using her supernatural speed to sidestep the assault. Rounding, the wolf bared her teeth, a snarl loosening from her throat. Muscles twitching for the next attack, Cortana held up a hand.
“Riaz is my mate, Renata,” she growled, sounding much like the wolf she’d fallen head over heels for. “Mine. Not yours. Mine.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Gaping at Cortana’s proclamation, Riaz stilled.
A glint of light reflected across Cortana’s perfect features, illuminating her icy blue eyes and plump red lips. Her chin was raised in self-assurance as she glared down at the hesitating animal before her. Every inch the fiery huntress suffused with noble beauty, Cortana shifted so that she stood between him and the wildcard threat before them.
She was protecting him.
If he’d been a weaker man, he’d have succumbed to the impulse to swoon over the showing of possessiveness and protection.
Cortana hadn’t balked in the face of danger, nor retreated into safety and let him deal with it alone as most of his pack expected from their alpha. She hadn’t stood idly by while he faced the wrath of another. She knew it would cost him to lose a member of the pack, because one way or another, Renata would be gone by the end of this day.
When Riaz turned his gaze on the wolf he’d once held affection for, nothing but pity and disgust was left. Lips pulling back from his teeth in a feral snarl, the alpha growled deep in his throat. The submissive wolf rolled onto her back before the alpha pair, belly up and whimpering.
Lording above the weaker animal, Riaz’s wolf bled into his eyes, seething. “You will wait for us in the great hall.”
Given the dominance that dripped off the command, Renata couldn’t do anything but submit. Whimpering, the trembling she-wolf with the tucked tail melted to the floor and crawled out of his quarters. She knew what was coming.
Riaz took half a moment to text his betas a succinct order. They wouldn’t allow the traitor to move a single paw until he arrived. But Renata wasn’t his main concern right now. Spinning, he locked gazes with the fierce female beside him.
“Riaz.”
The word was full of emotion and concern, the myriad of emotions thickening her voice and making the bond vibrant between them.
Her name was a whisper on his lips. “Cortana.”
“Are you okay?”
A delighted chuckle left him. “I’m—I’ve never been better. You claimed me—you protected me.”
“I always will, Riaz.” She moved closer and laced her fingers through his. “It doesn’t matter what happened to you before, what happened with your family. I know you, and you’re a good man. You’re not a coward, Riaz. You’re the strongest man I’ve ever met.”
