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When I didn’t immediately answer his question, Kingston dug his claws in deeper. “Give me one reason not to tear your heart from your chest and throw it in the fucking fire.”
“Uh, I can give you two.”
I looked at my wife, keeping her distance, worry flickering in her beautiful eyes. “It’s okay,a stor. This is no less than I expected.”
She bit down on her lip but nodded. Knowing as well as I that we needed to work things out ourselves. There’d be no peace between us otherwise.
“Ask your questions. I’ve nothing to hide.”
Thorne sneered. “If you had nothing to hide, why were you literally hiding? You took her by force. Drugged her. She’s clearly in your thrall. Why else would she be playing house with her kidnapper?”
“You misunderstood me. Ihadthings to hide. But no longer. Everything I did served a purpose. The greatest purpose, you might say.”
“Oh, we know all about your Society. How you’ve been stalking Sunday since she was born. Fuck, man, that’s creepy.” The wolf dug his claws into my shoulders a little deeper. “Thorne’s right. You couldn’t get her to stay with you, so you held her captive. Such a fucking vampire thing to do.”
Thorne cut him a glance. “I’m standing right here, mate. Also, still a vampire.”
“Yeah. I said what I said.”
Sunday stepped closer, her hand protective on her belly, eyes on mine. “I’m not in his thrall, Noah. Let him go. He’s not a threat to you. He’s not even fighting back.”
“You wouldn’t even know if you were, dove. He can’t be trusted. Not until we know for certain what his intentions are.”
I laughed. “Things would have been so much easier if that were true. My thrall doesn’t work on her. Trust me, I tried. You think she’s compliant? You should have seen her when we got here. Fought me nearly every step of the way. Nearly succeeded in killing me too.”
“That’s my girl,” Alek said, his voice heavy with sleep. The Novasgardian had seen better days. He’d barely pushed himself to a seated position, his elbows resting on his knees as he regarded us.
It stung a little to see Sunday go to him, sit at his side and hold him. But the happiness flowing from her was undeniable. For a moment, she’d been solely mine, but now she was whole.
The wolf slammed me against the wall. “More meaningless words.”
“You wanted answers. I’m giving them to you. Why demand them if you refuse to believe me?”
“Why should we believe you when every word out of your mouth has been a fucking lie since the day we met you?” Kingston growled.
“Not every word,” I said, my eyes meeting Sunday’s. Sighing heavily, I turned to Thorne. “If you don’t want words, then see for yourself. Look inside my mind.”
Thorne offered me a curious look. “You would do that? Drop your shields?”
“Aye. Anything to move us past this. I have many sins I’ve already atoned for, but you need proof. I will give it to you. Just know there will be things you don’t like.”
“I’m certain of it.”
He stared into my eyes, and I lowered the walls I’d so carefully constructed after my time with Aisling. Her ability to terrorize me, infiltrate my head, make me do and believe things I’d never have entertained had traumatized me deeper than even fighting in a war had.
I gave him everything I had freely, holding nothing back. Noah Blackthorne was the third person alive to ever know all of my depraved secrets. I could see the weight of them in his eyes as he stepped back. Accusation. Acceptance. Jealousy.
The reason for the last made sense as his gaze dropped to the frayed band on my finger.
“You married her?” His words were a soft, pained whisper.
“He fucking didwhat?” Alek’s voice seethed with barely restrained fury. Thorne’s words pulled him from his semi-fugue state. I wondered fleetingly what had caused him to be so weakened, but reason told me it had to do with their arrival.
“Sunshine?”
“He’s mine, just as you are.”
“Yeah, but we didn’t get to fucking marry you.” Kingston was trembling, his claws sliding deeper into my shoulder.
