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“So determined,” Marco said in a low, amused voice. He paused, his hand going still. His eyes sought out mine. His expression had turned abruptly serious. “Princess, what are youdoing?”
Shit. “Seducing you?” I said with all the coyness I could manage, fluttering my eyelashes at him. “Is that aproblem?”
He withdrew his hand completely. I almost moaned at the loss of contact. He set it on the other side of my body and lifted himself so he was staring down atme.
“Whynow?”
“Does it matter? I want you, you want me...” I teased my fingers down his bare chest to the waist of hisjeans.
Marco closed his eyes for a second as if gathering his self-control. When he looked at me again, his gaze was stark. “Ren. Please. Whynow?”
I couldn’t bear to lie to my mate, not when he asked me like that. I swallowed hard. “I do want you. But I also... Julius took a jab at you because our bond isn’t consummated yet. I thought if it was, maybe he’d backdown.”
“Oh, princess.” Marco let his head drop until his nose almost grazed mine. “Do you really think I’ll lose to that sorry excuse for atiger?”
“No,” I said, mostly honestly. The images that had haunted me since Julius had first spoken his challenge floated back into my head. All the ways I might find Marco after the battle, battered and bleeding. “I don’t want to see how badly he might hurt you while you’re winning. If I can save you fromthat...”
Marco sucked in a breath. “There was a time not long ago when I thought you might enjoy seeing me batted aroundsome.”
My back stiffened. The idea that I’d wish that kind of pain on him wrenched at me so hard tears sprang into my eyes. “No,” I choked out. “I was angry at you, but I would never want—that’s the last thingI—”
Marco’s eyes had widened. He brushed his thumb over my lips, stopping my struggle for words. “I’m sorry,” he said. “It was only a joke—a bad one, clearly. I... didn’t realize my wellbeing meant so much toyou.”
“Of course it does, you idiot,” I muttered. “You’re my mate. You’re obviously upset about the challenge. I just thought, this is the one thing I can do that mighthelp...”
“Serenity.” Marco lowered himself on his side next to me and tugged me against him. He kissed my forehead, his voice a little shaky. “You have no idea how much you’ve helped already, with everything you’d done so far. And I’m not upset about the challenge because I’m afraid of Julius. Confrontations like that—they just stir up memories I’d ratheravoid.”
I nestled my head against his shoulder. “Likewhat?”
He hesitated for a long moment. When he spoke again, his voice was even quieter. “You’ve asked me before how I got this scar.” He touched the pale line that bisected his eyebrow. “I told you it was from a challenge. That particular challenge... came from a kin-member I’d considered a friend. One of my closest friends. We’d grown up together, played and trained together before I was even named next alpha-in-line. I’d have fought to the death forhim.”
My throat had gone tight. Oh, God. “But instead you had to fight to the deathagainsthim.”
“Not to the death. Not in that moment. But I had to fight him, yes. I had to hear him tell me he didn’t believe I deserved to be alpha, that I didn’t deserve to even be kin, and then I had to beat him into submission.” Marco paused with a hissed inhale. “It was him or me, and in the end I choseme.”
“You did what you had todo.”
“Yes. But when there’s a challenge, the loser is banished. An alpha can’t have someone who tried to undermine our authority just hanging around. And Devon didn’t know what to do with himself once he was out on hisown.”
“What happened?” I asked. I could already tell from the weight in Marco’s voice that it wasn’tgood.
“He ended up tangling with a bunch of vampires. They werereallynot pleased about whatever he said or did to them.” Marco swallowed audibly. “When we found his body... it was obvious they’d tortured him for a while before they’d finished the job. So no, I didn’t kill him. But I did send him to his death. And the worst death I canimagine.”
I wrapped my arm around my mate, hugging him. “You didn’t have a choice. You couldn’t have known what would happen to him. It’s not as if you made him mess with thosevampires.”
“I tell myself all that,” Marco said. “But I still feel like I’ve been punched in the gut every time I hear the words of achallenge.”
I drank in the smell of his skin, like spiced coffee. The stutter of his breath. The tension still wound through his muscles. He hadn’t wanted to tell me that story. He’d avoided it for weeks. But he had, finally, so that I’dunderstand.
“That’s why you were impatient to consummate,” I said. “Why it was so important to you to secure your position any way youcould.”
“I shouldn’t have seen you that way,” Marco said quickly. “I didn’twantto think about you that way. But the thought was there. I let it get to me. You know how sorry I am forthat.”
“But now—” I started, moving my body againsthis.
Marco groaned, but he gripped my thigh to hold me still. “Ren, tell me the truth. Would you be offering right now if Juliushadn’tchallengedme?”
I wanted to say yes. The word caught in my throat. I couldn’t know exactly what I’d have done if the luncheon had played out differently... butI could make a reasonableguess.
