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“I guess I did count on that. Which makes me a piece of shit, I know, but I just wanted to check for myself that you’re okay. It cut me to know you’d be blaming yourself for the deaths of Benny and Crawford. I just want to be here for you. Look, I know I messed up but, seriously, are you going to punish me forever?”
She stilled. “Punish you?”
“Shutting me out was a good way to punish me—I’ll give you that. I’ve hated every second of it. But I can’t make up for what I did if you’re not going to let me near you.”
“I didn’t shut you out to punish you, Mateo. I did it because I wanted you out of my goddamn sight. Trust me when I say it would have been better for you if you’d stayed away.”
His shoulders drooped. “I know I hurt you. You can’t know how much it haunts me. I didn’t mean for it to happen, Bree. I don’t even know how things escalated the way they did. When you said you’d never under any circumstances take me as your mate … it was like someone took over; like I was in the backseat while they—” His eyes tortured, he shoved a hand through his hair. “You don’t need to hate me. I hate me enough for both of us. I’m not going to ask you to forgive me. I’d just ask that you give me a chance to make it up to you.”
“You think there’s any way to make it up to me?”
“I don’t know. I just want the chance to try.” He took a slow, careful step toward her. “You have to know I would never have acted that way if it hadn’t been for what you said.”
Her brows flew up, and her cat hissed. “So, it’s my fault?”
“No, no, that’s not what I meant. I didn’t expect you to push me away. I was hurt, shocked, and embarrassed. There were so many things I imagined we’d one day do together when we became a couple. Right then, all of that died. I could feel myself losing you, feel all those plans slipping away, feel my world spiraling out of control. And the next thing—”
Frustrated by his refusal to speak his crime aloud, she finished, “The next thing you tried to force a claiming mark on me.”
A deep, guttural, bone-chilling growl came from behind her. Bree let her eyes fall closed. It was a measure of how distracted she’d been that she hadn’t sensed Alex enter.
She turned, intending to tell him she could handle this just fine. With his neck corded, his muscles tense, and his nostrils flaring, he stood glaring at Mateo through cold, dead eyes that chilled her to the bone. And she decided that, nah, there was no rush to get his attention.
Alex flexed his fingers as molten anger poured through his veins like lava. That same volcanic heat roiled in his gut and pricked at his scalp. It took everything he had to maintain supremacy over his raging beast. The animal kept swiping out with his claws, wanting to slice and shred and mangle the male cat.
Every muscle in his body hot and tight, Alex slowly prowled toward the piece of shit. “You tried to bite her?” The words came out sharp. Clipped. Harsh. He was surprised he could speak at all when fury was choking him. “You tried to force a claiming mark on her?”
A claiming brand was a special thing. A symbol of the ultimate commitment. Not like a wedding ring—jewelry could be removed; marriages could be dissolved. Matings really were a case of “‘til death do us part,” since very few could survive the breaking of the mating bond; very few wanted to survive the death of their mate.
For a shifter to leave a claiming bite on someone’s skin, they were declaring that they would forever care for, respect, cherish, and protect that person; promising they would never leave, neglect, or betray them. It was a special and extraordinary moment for both parties. One they’d forever forget. One they’d likely replay in their mind time and time again.
Receiving a claiming bite was also a once-in-a-lifetime thing. But if Mateo had succeeded in branding her, he’d have robbed Bree of that. There would have been no taking it back, no erasing it, no fixing it. And when she did find a male she wanted to take as a mate, she’d have gone to him marked by another.
Pushing into Mateo’s personal space, Alex clenched his hand, itching to smash his fist into the guy’s throat and crush his windpipe. But then the prick wouldn’t be able to answer him. “I asked you a question. Did you try—”
“I didn’t mean to do it,” Mateo burst out, backing away.
