Rhen stared at her.
Her voice remained weak, but nothing about the question was confused.
He could have lied. He had lied about far greater things, but the connection between them seemed to recognize evasion before words ever reached his mouth.
“Yes.”
Her breath caught.
Rhen continued before desire could turn the answer into permission.
“If the pain disappeared now and the connection fell silent, would you still want me?”
The question held her still.
She looked away from him and into the fire, considering rather than answering from instinct.
When she returned her gaze to his, the fever was no longer speaking through it.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you could have killed me when I appeared at your gates, and every part of you wanted to.” Her thumb moved faintly against his hand. “You could have harmed me while I was helpless, but you did not. You gave me your blood even though you believed it might turn me into your enemy, and you stayed when there was nothing you could do except listen to me suffer.”
Rhen’s jaw flexed.
“That does not make me good.”
“I didn’t say it did.”
He almost smiled, which only deepened his irritation.
“What does it make me?”
“The male I am choosing. The male my body aches for.”
The words moved through him more violently than the bond ever had.
Rhen released her hand and rose, putting distance between them before his control fractured.
“You do not know me.”
“Then tell me what I am choosing.”
He turned toward her.
The shadows sharpened the scars across his face and body, leaving nothing gentle in his expression.
“I have killed more people than you could count. I have slaughtered witches and vampires alike, and I have never required remorse to sleep afterward. I will not become kind because you survived my blood, and I will not promise that whatever exists between us will make me safe.”
She absorbed every word without looking away.
Rhen approached the bed again, stopping before he touched her.
“If you choose this, you choose what happens between us tonight. You do not choose ownership, obedience, or anything else you have not named.”
Her lips parted as she drew a slow breath.
