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I should be plotting a way to take down my father and end him in a way that leaves no doubt the next shadow king is me. But instead, I’m thinking of Rayne. And Ann. Always Ann. But Rayne is a new twist in our story. A bad twist I never saw coming.
I stomp toward a clearing. There are healing herbs here I can gather, even though I don’t care about them. I can’t see past my own anger. Rayne is back. After all the work we’ve done, now that Ann is so close to accepting us as her mates, he's back to take her from us. This fucker has come home in Adrik’s body, no less. It’s true he and I weren’t close, but I knew him, and he was a good man.
Rayne is her true mate. She’s said it before. And the way she pulled that light, she must have drawn it from his energy. That kind of power can’t be hers singularly.Can it?
I think of all the things I know about Rayne. Conversations we’ve had about him. Things she said. Ever since Adrik was drawn to the shadow world and his soul consumed by a smoke dragon, his body had been dying. I suppose this fixes that, but Adrik isn’t Adrik now. He’s Rayne. Her mate.
No matter what I do, I can’t forget that. He is hertruemate, at least in her eyes.
But aren't we too? The mate bond can't be ignored, can't be falsified. What my brothers and I feel is just as real as what he feels for her, what she feels for him, but does she feel that way for us too?I think she does, but I'm not sure any more.
I sigh and walk on. The herbs grow wild at the edge where the forest overtakes the grass. When I bend to pick a stalk of hilder root, I hear the footsteps behind me. Nudging my dagger from its sheath, I'm prepared for someone stupid to be behind me. It isn’t often anyone tries to sneak up on me. Never does anyone succeed.
I twist and hold my blade to his throat. Adrick. Rayne.Shit. Of course it had to be him.
“You’re following me.” It’s obvious by his presence, but I needed an opening that doesn’t make me want to kill him.
He touches the point of my blade, with a brow raised. “Sharp.” And there's mockery in his voice, almost like it's beyond the possible that I would actually kill him, which speaks of an arrogant man.
You've already died once, you fool.
"Phantom?" The fact that I haven't lowered the blade makes the mockery fade from his voice.
I don’t have to tell him I’m going to kill him. He’s the kind of warrior who knows it. “You’re here for her?” Also likely obvious.
He stares at me, and I lower the dagger. I might kill him, but it won’t be today. No, because I'm not that kind of man, and I wouldn't deserve Ann if I was.
“I saw you take care of her, be kind to her. I saw everything you did for her.” His face... there's sincerity in it. Sincerity I don't want to see right now. “And I appreciate it."
But...
I wait for it, knowing there will be more. If he’s followed me to tell me he can take it from here, I’ll hurt him. I won't want to, but the primal need that drives me to put my mate above all else will make any other reaction impossible. If he speaks those terrible words, he'll taste my fist.
"And?" I cock a brow because I’ve seen Onyx do it, and it never fails to get his point across without words.
He releases a slow breath. “Thank you for taking care of her. And thank you for keeping her safe.”
I shouldn’t have to tell him that she’s done as much for us as we have for her. He should know that, if he knows her at all. I shouldn’t have to tell him that protecting her isn’t a choice for us. It’s who we are, who she makes us . And I want to kill him because he doesn’t know, because he’s reduced her importance to us to nothing more than a duty rather than an honor, rather than a desire, rather than passionate obsession.
"She's my mate," I tell him, choosing each word with care. "That's my job."
His gaze sharpens. "I know you three think she's your mate and that she's important to this battle of yours..."
"There's nothinkabout it, on both accounts."
"I guess she's the one who will decide that though," he says, running his fingers through that short hair of his. Not nervously, but almost like he feels sorry for me, like he knows her choice, and it won't be to stay with us.
“Are you going to take her away from us?” The question might make me weak, but the answer has the power to crush me. To destroy all of us. And I get the sense that so far in this conversation, he’s dodged whatever he truly thinks. Whatever he’s planning.
He sizes me up with a glance, with a gaze so stark it’s clear what he wants. But instead of honestly telling me that, he shakes his head and shrugs. If he had pockets, he would shove his hands in them. “I don’t know. Like I said, it’s up to Ann and what she wants. That’s all that’s ever mattered to me. All that ever will.”
And fuck if I know what she wants.
“If you try to take her, I’ll kill you.”
Some men have whimpered when I've spoken similar words. Others have cowered. But this Rayne? He gets that look of pity on his face once more. Probably because he knows that as much as I'd want to kill him for taking our Ann, I wouldn't. Because she's not just some prize, some possession, some tool to win this war. She's a woman, a person, and if she decides to leave with this man... we'll let her.
Because what else can we do?
