Of course they are. You just made a scene at the biggest event of your career.
She tried to pull away again. The pain hit harder this time, sharp enough to make her knees buckle. He caught her arm before she could fall.
“I said stop.” He looked as horrified as she felt. “We need to… I need to think?—”
“Let go of me.”
“If I let go of you, we’re both going to collapse.” His eyes were wild, gold flecks burning bright. “Something happened. When you touched the contract. Something…”
He broke off, staring at her like he was seeing her for the first time. Through the strange new connection between them, his emotions shifted against her awareness. Recognition. Horror.
A selkie, something whispered. Was that his thought or hers?
“You’re a Pearl.” He said it like an accusation.
“Marina Pearl.” She didn’t know why she was introducing herself. He was still holding her arm. She could feel his heartbeat through the contact, too fast, matching hers. “How do you know my family?”
He didn’t answer. Through the bond, and it was a bond, she understood that now, something tied between them that shouldn’t exist, she felt him doing calculations. Weighing options. Looking for exits that didn’t exist.
His mind moved like a machine. Cold. Precise. Desperately trying to solve a problem that had no solution.
“This is impossible,” he said.
“What is?”
“You’ve bound us.” His voice was flat with shock. “Selkie magic and dragon fire and that damned contract; you’ve created a mating bond.”
The words didn’t make sense. Marina stared at him, waiting for the punchline.
“A what?”
“A mating bond.” He released her arm like it burned him. Immediately, the pain flared, distant but present, a warning of what would happen if they moved too far apart. “We’re tied together. Physically. Magically. I can feel your emotions, you can feel mine, and if we try to separate by more than fifty feet.”
He took three steps back. The pain doubled.
Marina grabbed a chair to stay upright. “Stop! Stop moving!”
“Fifty feet.” He stopped, breathing hard. Through the bond, his fury tore through the bond, so raw she tasted copper. Directed at her and himself and the universe in equal measure. “We can’t be more than fifty feet apart.”
“For how long?”
“The full moon.” His laugh was bitter. “Twenty-eight days. Unless we find a way to break it sooner.”
Twenty-eight days. Tied to a stranger. A stranger who was rude and arrogant and made her feel things she absolutely did not want to feel.
“This is insane.” Marina’s voice pitched higher. “This can’t be real. You can’t just… we can’t just…”
“What did YOU do?” His control cracked. “You walked into me! You spilled coffee on a two-hundred-year-old contract! And now I’m stuck?—”
“I didn’t do anything! You’re the one who was standing there like the world revolves around you!”
“The world doesn’t revolve around me. I simply expect basic competence from service staff.”
“Service staff?” Marina’s mortification transformed into something hotter. “I am a business owner. I was contracted to cater this event. And YOU backed into ME while yelling at someone for not teleporting your precious documents across town!”
They were both shouting now. The entire room was watching. Marina could feel dozens of eyes on them, could feel her career imploding in real time, and underneath it all she could feel HIM: his fury and his fear and underneath that, shame he was trying desperately to hide.
“This is a disaster,” he said.
