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She chewed harder on the net, determined to free herself; determined to get to Teague’s camp.
The battle would be well underway by now. Did Teague need her? Probably not. He was a tough son of a bitch, and he had not only his clan but the aid of fallen angels.
More, Ronin would be no match for him. But that was what worried her. If his insistence on sending shadowkin to do his dirty work was anything to go by, he knew on some level that Teague could overpower him. Ronin would do something sneaky to increase his odds, hence why her plan was to do something equally sneaky: Attack while in flight.
Ronin wouldn’t expect an assault from above. He likely wouldn’t be braced for it. And neither would anyone he’d brought along with him.
But until she got out of this net—which she would, she had to—she wouldn’t be attacking anyone.
She also couldn’t touch Teague’s mind to be certain he was alive. She hoped he didn’t try telepathically reaching out to her. If he did, if he found himself touching a psychic barrier rather than her mind, his focus would falter. With any luck, he’d released his demon by now—the beast would get so caught up in the battle and consumed by blood-lust that it would hopefully be too distracted to wonder about her whereabouts.
“You know, when I first found you, I couldn’t believe my luck.” A nostalgic smile touched Holt’s mouth. “My anchor was the sentinel of not just any powerful Prime, but Knox Thorne. Also, she was strong and lethal and powerful. I was proud as fuck.”
He spoke like she was a trophy. An asset, even. Something he’d earned. Dick. She went back to work on the net, chewing and raking at it.
His smile slipped. “I didn’t for one minute think you would ask for time before we formed the bond. Or that you’d refuse to join my lair.”
Why? He’d refused to join hers.
“I didn’t like that my Prime intended to use you, but I didn’t think it would bother you to share your secrets with me. Not when you knew it would enhance my standing with him. Anchors do that,” he added, his voice growing sharp. “Help each other. Support each other. Build each other up.”
None of which he’d ever done for her, so she wasn’t sure where he was getting the insane notion that he was in a position to lecture her.
“But I soon realized that you would never tell me what I wished to know. That you would choose to protect Knox’s privacy over supporting me as you should have.” His lips pinched tight. “My demon felt as betrayed as I did. We wanted to teach you a lesson; remind you of what was important; spur you into backing down.”
And so he’d walked away like the asshole he was.
“But you didn’t come to me. Didn’t choose to prioritize me and our bond. Didn’t even send up a fucking smoke signal. No, you put Knox’s secrets and safety first. You chose someone else over me. So I did something similar—I focused on myself and on pursuing my goals rather than on you.”
Actually, for her, it hadn’t really been about choosing Knox over him. She’d told Holt that repeatedly all those years ago, but he hadn’t heard her. Nor had he realized how selfish he was being, which obviously hadn’t changed.
He drew in a slow, controlled breath. “Once my anger drained away, I thought about contacting you. But I didn’t. I knew it would have been pointless. That you would never move to Canada or my lair. I chose to instead let you go. But I thought about you often, though I tried not to. So did my demon. You were on its mind practically all the fucking time.”
Her own entity kind of liked that—why shouldn’t they have suffered?
“It never recovered from your betrayal. It steadily became bitter. Scornful. Withdrawn. And then its control began to waver, and it started to push for supremacy more and more. I soon realized that I was on the path to turning rogue.”
She went still. Well, fuck.
Unclasping his hands, he flexed his fingers, his gaze turning inward. “I thought I could get a handle on it. Reverse the issue. And when I rose to power, it did help. My demon loves having that power. Loves wielding it. Loves being respected and feared by our lair.”
Unsurprising. Things such as power and authority were like drugs to most entities.
His eyes once more became wholly focused on her. “Long before I ever met you, there was something I’d always intended to do on becoming Prime: Heal the breach that my previous Prime caused between him and Knox. I wanted an alliance. I’d never imagined that his sentinel would be my anchor; that I’d have a way in when I finally rose into power.
