A heaviness settles in my stomach.
“Are ... are you courting her?” My voice is a harsh whisper.
His shoulders drop an inch, and my heart mimics the motion. It’s the smallest dent in his armor, but such a telling one.
He cares, but only because he feels a sense of responsibility.
No wonder he’s always trying to get me to step outside my boundaries. He wants to move on with his life without this lovesick stray shadowing the insides of his castle.
He pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs. “Laith ...”
My name sounds so tired when he says it like that. Even so, it makes my stupid heart gallop, and I hate him for it.
“Just answer the question, Rhordyn.”
I pay my way, one droplet at a time, so I deserve to know if there’s going to be someone else living here, walking the halls that have become my crutch. I deserve to know if a woman will be sharing his den, muddying it with her scent. Or if I’ll be seeing her lure him to the dining table, sharing food with him ... something he’snevershared with me.
It’s that final thought that snaps me like a twig.
“Answer me!”
Rhordyn doesn’t even blink at my poignant display of discomfort. He simply studies me for a long moment, like he’s considering how, exactly, he wants to slice me up. Which part he’ll toss to the crows first.
After a small eternity, he takes a smooth step back, cleaving us apart with an ocean of chill.
I don’t like the way he’s distancing himself. It makes the ground beneath my feet feel unsteady, as though it could split apart and devour me.
“I’m considering giving her my cupla,” he says, voice monotone, words matter-of-fact.
My lungs flatten.
No.
Fuck, no.
I stagger back into dense foliage, vision blurring, heart in my throat.
Something inside me rears up, wild and ugly, urging me to stalk around this hedge, grip Zali by her strawberry hair, and tear out her jugular with my teeth.
The aftertaste of that errant thought is bitter.
But he laughed with her.Smiledat her. Not just a small, mocking smile ...
An unguarded one.
The only male who’s ever smiled at me like that is Kai, so whatever Rhordyn shares with this female must be special ... But hiscupla?
In the stories I’ve read, a male only offers a female the other half of his cupla if she’s his mate. His true love. Hisdestined.
For a moment, I think I might collapse.
“Is she—is she your mate?”
His eyes widen before he tips his head and laughs, the breadth of his chest shaking with the roll of it, but it’s not a happy sound.
It’s dark and brutal, like stones clanking against one another over and over again.
The vicious sound tapers off, and he skewers me with his icy regard. “You do read some crap, don’t you?”
