Lucien kept his eyes on the door. “It’s dangerous out there for you.”
“We’ll go in the daytime; it will be safer then.”
“No.”
At first, Callie wasn’t sure she’d heard him right. She stood there, waiting to see if he would start laughing at his own joke. When he didn’t, anger rose to replace her disbelief.
“No?” she asked.
“No.”
She couldn’t be hearing him right, but how could she possibly hear him wrong when it was the only word he was saying? She willed him to look at her, but he kept his gaze on the wall as his fingers dug into his knees.
Something wasn’t right here. A part of her said to proceed with caution as he looked like he was about to snap, but she didn’t understand why. The other part, the far more annoyed part, didn’t care about caution.
“You promised me that I would be able to get my things,” she reminded him.
“You have everything you need here.”
She did a double take, and her mouth opened and closed a couple of times before she finally found words again. “I have memories there—”
“And you’ll have memories here too.”
It was taking everything she had to keep control of her temper as she resisted the idea of punching him in his face. And she knew how to throw a punch now, a good one that would knock some sense into histhickskull.
“There are things there that mean a lot to me,” she grated through her teeth.
When Lucien’s head turned toward her, the hair on her nape rose as she studied the harsh countenance of his face. There was nothing of the man she loved in the glittering pools of black ice that were his eyes. His mouth compressed into a thin line, and the set of his jaw caused his chin to jut out.
She had no idea what was wrong with him or why he was so stubborn and cruel about this, but she refused to back down. She thought of her horses sitting on her shelves, and fear churned within her at the possibility of never seeing them again. If something happened to them, it would break her heart.
And he could keep her from them. She was trapped here. She hadn’t felt trapped until now, but she felt like a cornered mouse surrounded by a bunch of cats.
“You’ve always known I wanted to go back for my things. It’s time,” she said.
Lucien dug his fingers into his knees as he tried to control his temper. “I won’t have you placed in unnecessary danger.”
“Last time I checked, you don’t control my life. “
“You are my mate, which means I have to keep you safe.”
Callie lifted her chin to glare at him. “I might be your mate, but that doesn’t mean you get to make my decisions forme. You promised me, Lucien.”
Those words caused some of his ire to ebb, but not enough of it for him to relent. “I will go and get your things.”
“I’m going with you.”
“I will bring everything back here for you.”
“No. I am going to pack my things and say goodbye to my life. I have every right to do that.”
“You have no right to place yourself in danger.”
She had no idea what was wrong with him, but her patience was running out. “And you do? The last time I checked, you were working your way back up to going out there to hunt Savages again. You think it’s okay for you to put yourself at risk, but not me?”
“I’m a vampire; you’re a mortal. I’ve been fighting these creatures my entire life.”
“Maybe so, but they already caught you once.”
