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But here he is, on edge, pissed, his entire body tense. I want to reach out and calm him the way I did with Raven, but I don’t think he’d appreciate that right now, so my other option is to just, well, be blunt.
“What’s going on?” I ask.
“It’s none of your business,” Cain snaps.
“Oh? Any reason you’re pissed at me? I didn’t do anything besides try to keep you from killing our one ticket into Roanac’s place.”
“That doesn’t mean I owe you any information!” Cain keeps pacing up and down.
“If you’re going to act recklessly and endanger our mission then yeah, you kind of do. I need to understand what’s going on.” I plant my hands on the kitchen table. “Cain, you almost ruined our mission.”
“I didn’truinit.” Cain glares at me. I think maybe he’s embarrassed that I’m right, so now he’s just acting angrier to deal with it.
“And you’re supposed to be the calm one.” I roll my eyes. “Look, I get it. You said earlier that you don’t trust me. But this isn’t about me needing to know your entire history. I just need to know what’s going on because if our enemy can push your buttons, that’s a bad thing.”
“And he can’t push yours? Hmm?”
“He probably can,” I acknowledge. “But you knowwhyhe can. I stole from him, and he sent men out to kill me in retaliation. There you go. Doesn’t really take a genius to put together the rest and why I don’t like him. I can’t help you if you don’t let me in.”
“I don’t need your help.”
“Yes, you do!”
“If anything, you need ours,” Cain sneers. It’s a low blow, and I have to hold myself back from completely losing my cool. “You’re the one Roanac’s after. He’s not after us.”
“Are you threatening to abandon me?”
“No, I couldn’t abandon you.” Cain looks offended that I would even suggest such a thing. “You’re my mate!”
“Then why aren’t you telling me? I’m your mate, so if you’re hoping that I’ll stop wanting to know about you and your life, you’re dead fucking wrong.”
“You sure about that? Because you seemed dead set against the mate thing before.”
“You can’t have it both ways, Cain!” I fling my hands into the air in frustration. “You can’t have your cake and eat it too! You can’t say that I’m your mate and that you’re allowed to protect me and be with me in the way thatyoudecide is okay but then shut me out in other ways. You can’t decide what I am and am not allowed to know.”
“Yes, I can!” Cain rounds on me, getting right in my face. “If I give too much to people, they betray me, and how do I know you won’t do the same thing? You heard the bastard back there, and he was right. My own brother betrayed me. He tried to sell me off to a vampire blood slaver. He didn’t care that meant I’d spend the rest of my life as a prisoner, hooked up like some kind of machine, vampires feeding off me, sold to the highest bidder like cattle. He didn’t care that I’d be miserable and slowly drained of blood for however many few years I’d have left until they drained me completely, like a fucking juice packet.
“And he was mybrother. We grew up together. We were together our entire lives. And even he couldn’t be trusted. So why the fuck should I trust you just because you’re supposed to be my mate? That doesn’t stop you from possibly betraying me. You haven’t done anything to prove that you’ll be there for me in a tight spot. All you’ve done to help us is to also save your own skin.”
This honestly infuriates me. How dare he suggest that I’m only doing this to help myself?
“Even before I cared for all of you,” I snap, “I never would’ve thrown any of you under the bus. There are good people in this world. Maybe I’m one of them, maybe I’m not. I don’t know. But you’re going to meet good people, and you will never get to have them in your life if you don’t learn to trust them. You don’t get to have me in your life without trusting me!”
Cain strides over to me, fury sparking in his eyes. “You don’t get to tell me what I can and can’t do! You can’t lecture me!”
“I’ll lecture you all I fucking want!” I yell right back.
I have no idea when the two of us got this close, but suddenly he’s right in front of me, inches apart, we’re breathing hard, and I just want to punch him in the face—and instead we end up kissing, smashing together like two planets out of orbit.
I don’t know if he moved first or I did, but it doesn’t really matter. The second our mouths touch, all the tension that’s gathered around us breaks like a storm cloud unleashing a bolt of lightning.
My hands reach up to grip his shoulders, holding on to him tightly as my tongue spars with his. He wraps one thick arm around me, nearly bending me backward with the force of his kiss. His lips are hard and demanding, angry and ravenous all at once, and I give back as good as I get, not giving ground at all.
We’re still fighting, in a way.
We’re just doing it through our lips and tongues and teeth, rather than with words.
Honestly? I like this way better.
