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“It just went off?”
“What, you don’t believe me?”
“I believe you lie to yourself quite often. What did Warrick ever do to you anyway?” She narrowed her eyes as his words replayed in her mind … “I wouldn’t have hurt Milly, not for the world.” And then Blair understood. “You developed a little obsession with Milly. You pursued her, even though she was claimed by another male. You thought she’d make a good mate for you—”
“For a time, yes, I did mistakenly think that she was fated to be mine. Even though she proved that my belief was wrong when she risked her life to save his, I still found it hard to accept at first. But it all worked out fine, because as you grew up I learned that she wasn’t the woman I’d been waiting for at all. It was you.”
Blair couldn’t help but wonder if there’d been other women over the years he’d become obsessed with. Others he’d convinced himself were meant to be his mate. Hell, even Alayna could have been a female he’d developed an unhealthy attachment to as opposed to someone who had wanted to imprint on him.
He rolled his shoulders. “Like I said before, we can talk more in the van.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you.”
He heaved a sigh. “If you want to sulk about the drug, fine, knock yourself out. But you know in your heart I wouldn’t have resorted to that if you hadn’t forced my hand.”
“How did I force your hand?”
“You’re the one who wanted me to take control. Well, I did. It isn’t my fault if you don’t like the reality of it.”
“Reality,” she drawled. “I have the distinct feeling that you and I live in totally different versions of reality. In mine, we’re not mates. Not even close. The claiming bite on my neck only proves it.”
His eyes flared. “Don’t think that you won’t pay for letting Devereaux mark you.”
“I didn’t simply allow Luke to mark me. You can tell that my scent has mixed with his. You can probably even tell that the mating bond is complete. You’re willfully ignoring all of that because it suits you to do so, but that doesn’t make any of it untrue. Face it, Donal, I’m not your—”
“Don’t say it,” he bit out, taking a lurching step forward. “Like I said, we’ll talk … what the hell?” he growled, finally noticing the punctures in the tires. “Tell me you didn’t do that.”
“I could. But I’d be lying. You should have expected it, really. But then, you truly have managed to convince yourself that I want to be with you. Well, like I said, I’m not going anywhere with you.”
He clenched and unclenched his fists. “Don’t make me hurt you, Blair. I’d hate to have to do it, I really would.”
“But you’d do it anyway, which just goes to prove that we’re not mates.”
Something ugly rippled across his face. “Make no mistake about it, Blair, you belong to me.”
“No, she fucking doesn’t.”
Blair’s heart jumped. The male voice came from behind her. A voice that belonged to her mate. Thank God.
Luke had to have parked somewhere close by so he could scope out the situation before planting himself in it. She hadn’t sensed him arrive or creep up on them. But cats were sneaky that way.
She saw in her peripheral vision that Luke and a bunch of others were rounding both ends of the van to flank her. She longed to drink in the sight of Luke, but she didn’t dare look his way, determined to keep Donal in her line of sight. She didn’t trust that he wouldn’t lunge at her or something, despite that his attention seemed to now fully be on the male cat who sidled up to her. Her female bared her teeth in a smug, feral grin, sure that their mate would make Donal pay.
Donal’s face contorted into one of sheer rage. “You.”
Luke planted his feet. “Yeah. Me.”
“You shouldn’t be here.”
“You thought I wouldn’t come for my mate?”
Donal snarled. “She isn’t yours.”
“Wrong.” And seeing her alive and unharmed untied the knots in Luke’s gut, but his fury remained. This sick freak needed to be put down like a rabid dog, and Luke had every intention of making that happen. “Blair was meant for me.”
“You are nothing to her.”
“Wrong again. She’s the other half of my soul. I knew it the first time I met her.” Luke tilted his head. “You can’t say the same, can you? Not from what I just overheard. It sounds as if you jump from one woman to another—you pin your entire focus on them, you convince yourself that they’re your mate, you no doubt also stalk them, and when things don’t work out the way you hoped, you oh so suddenly realize that another female is actually your mate.”
