“No!” she yelled.
The word was as much a denial as a cry of misery. She didn’t know what she wanted, but I did. I wrapped my other arm around her waist, dragging her toward me.
“No!”
I didn’t see her hand until it hit the side of my face. The blow was enough to knock my head to the side as the sound of it rebounded in the golden room. Shock drenched my out-of-control lust as my face throbbed from the punch. When I twisted my head to look at her again, I found myself staring into her eyes.
She would deny us both what we so desperately needed, and I was so out of control, I was about to take it from her. With a snarl, I released her and rose as I stalked to the other side of the room.
I couldn’t stay near her when she smelled of sex and her fangs were so clearly evident. I couldn’t be near her when I knew how amazing it could be between us and that she would never allow it.
“You’ll destroy us both to save your king, but he wouldn’t give up anything for you!” I snarled.
“Yes, he would,” she said with a conviction I’d never felt for anything before.
I spun toward her as a horrifying possibility occurred to me. “Are you in love with him?”
She briefly recoiled before lifting her chin. “No.”
But now that the possibility had taken root, it was growing, and so was a jealousy that I’d never experienced before. We’d both been with numerous others; we were demons, it was what we did, but I could compete with the faceless demons of her past.
I would kill them if I ever encountered one of them, but I could compete because I was her Chosen, and there would benoothers after me. I couldnotcompete if she’d already fallen in love with another. I planned to kill the varcolac, but if she were in love with him, then I would make his death something that would make War proud.
“Only a fool would destroy themselves for someone they didn’t love,” I growled.
“I love him, but I am notinlove with him. I’veneverlooked at my king in such a way, and I’ve never desired him. Kobal is my king, but more than that, he is my friend, and he set us free from Hell and Lucifer. I can’t repay his loyalty with a betrayal.”
“I’m not a betrayal; I am yourfuckingChosen!”
“And you’re also the enemy.”
Like a thunderstorm building on the horizon, the storm clouds of my power built. While the storm built inside me, I remained still as I stared at her in disbelief.
And then the storm broke.
Before I tried to shake some sense into her, I turned and stalked toward the door. As I was stepping through it, I unleashed a series of bone-crushing blows to the golden wall.
It dented and cracked until fissures sprang out from it and raced across the wall. My knuckles broke and my hand shattered, but I didn’t feel it. When my blood covered the wall, I finally felt stable enough to stop destroying it.
I had to regain control of myself. An out-of-control horseman was one of the most dangerous things there was, and though she infuriated me, I couldn’t allow myself to become a threat to her.
She already considered me a monster; I couldn’t prove her right by becoming something I’d never been before. Self-hatred and anger twisted inside me and rose in my throat to choke me as I recalled how close I came to forcing myself on her. I had to get away from her.
Straightening my shoulders, I left the room without looking back.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Bale
When Wrath returnedto the room, the sun was beginning to turn the sky from gray to pink. After he left last night, I tried to ease my endless sexual frustration on my own, but I only became more frustrated when my hand didn’t relieve me.
I dozed, but I couldn’t sleep when I didn’t know where he was or if he was okay. I found my gaze often traveling to the bloodstained wall. I was driving us both toward madness, but I was torn between him and my king. Torn between everything I’d always believed and my Chosen.
I’d contemplated going after him but refrained. If I went after him, I would give myself to him.
By the time the sun started to rise, I was ready to kill him, and me, to end this torment. I suspected he felt the same way as he stared at me with a mask of indifference on his face. However, his steely eyes told a different story. Seething with resentment, those eyes followed my every move as I pushed myself up from the floor and trudged over to the window.
At least I felt somewhat in control of myself again. An underlying hunger for him still thrummed through my veins, but I wasn’t worried that I’d jump him at any second.
