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The word hissed in my brain like scorching metal plunged into cold water. It made my insides curdle.
I would take her insults and her judgments and her pain. Her hate. Her claims that she would never love me. I would take it all.
But I would never accept herpity.
Soon, Zuh-Tephanie’s breathing changed. Growing rhythmic and deep. She’d fallen asleep once more. I knew I needed sleep, too. I needed to recover, and quickly.
I needed to gain back my strength, come into my full power once more.
So that I could be worthy of her love.
I wanted her love. Was desperate for it.
But even I would not accept scraps of love that were not really love at all but rather condolent charity.
I refuse to be pathetic. I refuse to be pitied.
I am Gahn Errok. I will remind my mate of my power and prowess, over and over again, until the pity is ripped away and she is helpless to do anything but love me.
Or, at the very least, I vowed to continue in my attempts until the day I died.
Whichever comes first.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Stephanie
Perhaps expectedly, Gahn Errok became the most obnoxious patient anyone could ever have imagined after that night. I hoped it was a good sign, that it meant he was gaining strength and energy back. Because,Jesus Christ, you needed a lot of energy to bark and snarl and complain as much as he did.
Whatwasunexpected, however, was the way he now began to push me away. All the humour, the softness, the vulnerability we’d experienced together that night seemed as if it had never even happened at all. Errok made no mention of the kiss, and, confused and feeling weirdly rejected, I didn’t either. Instead, I dutifully brought him food (which he complained about endlessly – too burnt, too dry, too little, too much) while I seethed internally. In the span of a few hours of sleep after his nightmare, he'd somehow gone back to the first Gahn Errok I’d met. Maybe even a worse version of him.
I knew that part of it had to be the fact that he was in pain and hated being cooped up in Thaleo’s mountain. It was obviously making him miserable. Gahn Errok was the kind of guy who squatted with a boulder on his back all night and carved his way through the cold, clear sky all day. I could tell that lying in bed, especially a bed belonging to his enemy, was driving him out of his mind.
But that didn’t explain why he didn’t want me near him. Shockingly, he even suggested that I no longer sleep in the cave with him after that first night. Even though I agreed with him that he appeared to be out of the woods, I took issue with the way he said he “no longer needed me hovering about like some typically over-worried female.”
I more than took issue with it. I was furious.
