“You son-of-a-bitch thought to take my daughter?—”
“You think to keep my Mate from me?” I roared.
Everyone there had flinched back from my outburst, except Lillian, who seemed to stand straighter. To my surprise, the Bladesedge chief swung from his saddle and moved to his Mate. I thought he meant to shield her, but he kept his neutral gaze on me.
“This is true?” he asked in a deceptively mild tone. “You claim Lillian as yers?”
I’d heard about one’s blood going cold but never experienced it until that moment. Instinctively, I tightened my hold on Lillian. ‘Twas one thing to stand off against her father, but could I face the entire Bladesedge clan?
Aye, ye could, and ye will, if ‘tis what it takes. Nae one will take her from ye.
I spat in response.
“Why do ye care?”
Drakolt lifted his arm protectively around the pregnant female.
“She is my Mate’s sister, and will always have a place with our clan?—”
“Lillian ismine!” I roared, my hand dropping to my sword hilt. ‘Twas dangerous to challenge the chief in front of his warriors, but myKteerhowled for blood fromsomeone. “I will fight any who?—”
“How can she be your Mate,” Sorcha interrupted quietly, “if you do not love her?”
Her question deflated my anger to confusion.
“What?” I glanced down at Lillian. “What? Of course I love her.”
My courageous little Mate seemed to shrink against me. She didn’t look at me, but rather at the snow before her sisters.
“You need not say it for my father, Kragorn. He understands…”
Like fook he did.
Because in that moment, I saw glimpses of Lillian’s old self. The person she’d been beneath her father’s heel, always afraid, always trying to make herself smaller.
Lesser.
And I would bedamnedbefore I allowed her to think of herself that way again.
Turning my back on my enemies, I kicked my cloak out of the way and sank to one knee in front of her, gathering her mittened hands in mine. I studied her face worriedly, dismissing her father, her family, and the entire Bladesedge army at my back.
They didn’t matter.
Only Lillian mattered.
“Dkaar,” I murmured softly. “I love ye. OfcourseI love ye. We are Mated.”
I could tell she was trying to be strong, although her lovely blue eyes seemed watery.
“Just because I said the words to you, Kragorn, does not obligate you to say them in return.”
She thought that’s what this was? Slowly, my lips tugged upward on one side.
“I love ye, Lillian, more than my next breath. Fook me, love, yearemy next breath. Ye kept me alive—no’ just the food and the water ye brought me all those months, but thesightof ye, the scent of ye.” I squeezed her hands. “Ye brought me light?—"
“The tray I left to reflect the sunlight for you?” Her voice was a mere whisper, but I saw the hope in her gaze, and my grin turned rueful.
“Nay, Lillian.Ye. Ye are my light. I cannae believe I havenae said the words, but what in the everloving shite did ye think Iwassaying all these weeks?” I gathered her hands in one of mine, then reached up to brush a strand of hair gently from her cheek.
