“She is human,” I say.
Cruz leans against the bar.“She’s also furious, stubborn, and bossy enough to make you sit down for first aid.”
The ghost of her command moves through me.
Sit down.
No fear in it.No softness either.Just Briana deciding I am bleeding and that something should be done about it.My chest tightens.
“She should be afraid of me,” I say.
“She probably is.”I look at him.
Cruz shrugs.“Not the way you think.Fear isn’t simple after something like that.She might not be afraid you’ll hurt her.She might be afraid she wants you not to.”
The bar goes too quiet.A growl scrapes up my throat before I can stop it.
Cruz lifts one hand.“I’m not saying it to be cruel.”
“I know.”
“I’m saying it because you’re already making decisions for her in the name of protecting her.”
I grab a towel from beneath the bar and wipe blood from my fingers, even though the bandage is already ruined.“I am protecting her.”
“From the vampires or from you?”
Both.The answer sits on the tip of my tongue, but remains unspoken, and Cruz sees it anyway.
He exhales.“Knox.”
“I almost shifted in front of her.”
“But you didn’t.”
“I punched a wall.”I glare at the spot.
“Better than punching a person.”
“I scared her.”
“She came toward you after.”
That memory hits me hard.Briana stepping forward.Not reckless exactly.Not unaware.She sees me.The cracked brick.The blood.The black in my eyes.She still comes closer until I ask her not to.
Because I ask.Not order.Not growl.Ask.And she stops.
My throat tightens around something I refuse to name.
“She doesn’t understand what I am,” I say.
“She works in a bar owned by a vampire with a dragon queen, a bear, witches, demons, ghouls, and our ugly asses.She understands enough.”
“Not this.”I tap my chest with my fist.“Not what happens when the beast picks one soul and decides the rest of the world can burn.”
Cruz’s face loses the last trace of humor.
The mate bond is rare for our kind.Not unheard of, but rare enough that most Minotaurs take lovers, spouses, partners, and never feel that ancient lock click into place.We’re not gentle creatures by nature.We’re rage and maze and horn and blood.We’re guardians when loved and monsters when provoked.
