“But you didn’t.”
“No.”My laugh is humorless.“Not well.”
She looks toward the city.“Everyone knew?”
“Cruz.Aldron guessed.The others suspected.”
“But not me.”
“No.”
Her jaw tightens.There it is, the anger.Anger means she is still with me.Anger means she has not disappeared into fear.
“Why?”she asks.
“Because you had already had too much taken from you.”
“And you decided truth would be another thing I couldn’t handle.”
I deserve that even though it smarts like a motherfucker.“Yes.”
Her eyes snap back to mine, but I don’t look away.
“Yes,” I repeat.“That’s what I did.I told myself I was protecting you.Maybe part of me was.But part of me was afraid.Afraid you would look at me and see another monster wanting something from your body.Afraid you would think fate was another collar.Afraid you would choose me because of the bond before you could choose yourself.”
Her throat works.
I take one breath, then another.“I was wrong to keep it from you.”
The anger in her face shifts.Not gone but changed.“What does it demand?”she asks.
“The bond?”
“Yes.”
“From you?”I shake my head.“Nothing.”
“That can’t be true.”
“It’s true because I will make it true.”
Her brows draw together.
I step closer, then stop when her shoulders tense.“The bond pulls.It heightens instinct.Want.Protection.Awareness.If accepted, it can become stronger.Deeper.But it doesn’t give me rights over you.It doesn’t make your body mine.It doesn’t make your choices mine.It doesn’t turn no into yes.”
Her eyes shine under the city lights, and I keep going because if I stop now, I might never start again.“If you reject it, I will survive.”
That’s a fucking lie.
Her eyes narrow.“Try again,” she says.
My mouth closes, and she gives me a look sharp enough to cut.“No more hiding, remember?”
I look away toward the city.“If you reject it, something in me will break.My beast may never forgive me for letting you go.I may spend the rest of my life wanting what I can’t have.”Her breath catches, and I force my gaze back to hers.“But I will let you go.”
Briana stares at me for a long time.“You should have told me.”
“I know.”
