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Chapter Twelve
Lucas’s town car was parked in front of my apartment building when I got home.
“Awesome,” I grumbled. I’d been so dead set on putting my personal life on the back burner, I’d forgotten my personal life sometimes had a mind of its own.
Dominick was waiting on the landing outside my door, texting someone, looking generally bored. He knew as well as I did that the wards on my apartment kept most of the mean and nasty things away. They did not detract ghosts. Or uninvited werewolf kings, apparently.
“You could have waited inside, you know.”
“That sort of prevents me from guarding the entrance.”
“Suit yourself.” I went to grab my keys, but it occurred to me that was probably unnecessary since Lucas had already let himself in. “Is your brother in there?”
“What do you think?” His tone was dark as he pocketed his cell phone. This was not the happy-go-lucky Dominick I was used to.
“What did I do to piss him off? He knows Lucas and I have the same bond. I thought they understood how this whole mess worked.”
“Yeah, but I don’t think he was expecting you to pick Lucas.”
“What? What the hell are you talking about? I didn’t pick anybody.”
Dominick looked baffled by my response, and his former anger fizzled. He reached out to brush my hair aside. Everything kept coming back to this stupid, goddamn hickey. He was about to say something when my front door jerked open, and Lucas filled the frame with unusual menace.
“I think you’ve said just about enough,” he told Dominick.
To the bodyguard’s credit, he didn’t balk under the withering glare. “I don’t think you have said nearly enough.”
Lucas scowled and stepped out of the doorframe, giving me space to pass. How nice of him to give me access to my own fucking apartment. The second he closed the door I was standing in front of him with a finger jammed into his chest and a serious itch to go for my gun.
“You have a lot of explaining to do.”
“That seems like a common theme with us.” He ignored my phalangeal assault and guided me towards the couch. I didn’t feel much like being guided, but it would have been stupid to have our conversation standing up, so I moved across the room and intentionally sat on the armchair instead of the loveseat.
“So, what’s the deal with this?” I pushed my curls over my shoulder to show him my neck. “It isn’t healing, and it’s freaking everyone out.”
His eyes flicked to the fist-shaped hole in my hallway wall. “Apparently.”
“Either tell me what’s going on or get out. I’m not in the mood for cryptic werewolf bullshit tonight. And I’m minus one Queen’s Guard thanks to you.”
“I’ll talk to Desmond.”
“And tell him what?”
“That you and I are mated.”
“Right. Soul-bonded. I’m pretty sure he knows that,” I said sarcastically.
“No, Secret. Not soul-bonded. Mated.”
My hand flew to the mark on my neck, and I thought about how it had felt when he’d bitten me. The electricity, the fire filling me up until I brimmed over. It hadn’t just been lust. It had been magic.
“What the fuck did you do to me?”
“I asked you to let me do something, to trust me, and you did.”
“I wasn’t expecting to be mate-raped,” I yelled, hurling a pillow at him.
He caught the pillow and set it down, looking far too calm, though he did flinch when I used the word rape. “You’re overreacting. If you’ll calm down and stop throwing things, I will explain.”
