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Say it. Say it. You’re doing this for Rose, for your family. “Clayton…he wants to align with a powerful family, and Rose…she’s, she’s so incredibly sick. We need help, and he can give us that help…” I drew in a steadying breath. “We agreed to help each other out.”

“You’re talking in riddles, female. What are you saying?”

“I’ve agreed to marry him.”

Warrick jerked back, his face contorting, then he snarled, his eyes flashing to red and staying that way. “Like fuck. You are mine, I told you how it was. I told you what would happen when you gave yourself to me. I will tear that fucker’s head off before I ever let him come anywhere near you, do you hear me?”

His fury set off my fight-or-flight instincts. I didn’t reach for my blade, though, because he wasn’t going to hurt me, I knew that with everything in me. “If you kill him, it will hurt me. You said…you promised not to do that, not ever.”

His chest pumped, nostrils flared, and I watched, my pulse racing, as his incisors slid down, his mouth and jaw trying to reshape into his beast. “You became mine on that forest floor,” he said, voice melded with his beast. “You think I’ll just let you go?” He tilted his head back and roared.

“Stop,” I said, shoving at his chest. “You need to stop.” Tears stung my eyes, and I fought them back. “This is how it has to be, Warrick, how I want it to be, and I need you to accept it. I need you to walk away.”

“You don’t want him, this is some fucked-up deal.”

My hound, who didn’t play games, who said it like it was, expected the same from others, and if I didn’t lie to him now, he would never let me go, and he would go after Clayton.

I’d lose Rose.

So with every bit of internal strength I had left, I stared back into his gorgeous eyes and told him what I needed to. “It’s more than that.”

He stilled, taking me in, and he took an abrupt step back. His eyes stayed locked on mine. “You want this male?” he rasped.

“Yes, I want him. I’ve loved him since we were in high school.” More lies.

He was back in front of me in a second, his expression twisted with rage, and goddess, hurt. “No.”

“Yes,” I said, voice as strong as I could make it. “What you and I shared was just sex, animal attraction, like you said.”

“Dove…”

“Please, I need you to leave.” Before I break down in front of you, before you see for yourself how I really feel about you.

“Go,” I said, and shoved at him. He didn’t budge.

“No.”

“It’s over,” I said, my throat raw from holding back my tears. “Leave.”

He roared again and slammed his fist into the wall, punching almost right through it, gaze wild, confused.

It was like the night before, as if my hound was struggling to process what he was feeling, as if he didn’t understand what to do with it all. Or maybe it was as simple as he didn’t like to lose. It was easier to believe the latter, the former meant he might actually care for me, really, truly care, and I couldn’t handle that. That would break me.

I didn’t move, didn’t speak as he straightened, his eyes still locked on mine.

Finally, he leaned in, and I expected him to call me a bitch, to fire that anger at me, like a lot of guys did when they didn’t get their way. Instead, he leaned in, his big body shifting closer, and he buried his face against my throat and breathed deep like he always did, as if he were seeking comfort from me. I squeezed my eyes closed, pain lancing through me.

I loved him.

I was in love with him. With this wild, untamed male who didn’t know how to love me back.

It finally happened, the thing I’d spent my entire adult life trying to avoid, and as predicted, it was a complete and utter fuckup.

Then he lifted his head and stunned me by tucking my hair behind my ear with a gentleness I didn’t know he was capable of. “I’ll leave, but my brothers stay until you’re safe. You know where I am if you need me.”

Then he turned and walked out.

Chapter 25