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Larkin cleared her throat, gaining everyone’s attention. “I have something I need to tell you,” she said, leaning back to prop her ass on her desk.
“You and Teague are over already?” asked Tanner, looking awfully pleased by the prospect.
She felt her forehead crease. “No.”
“Shame,” muttered Keenan.
“This has nothing to do with Teague.” She wet her lips with a swipe of her tongue. “It’s about Holt.”
That easily, each male in the room went rigid.
Levi squinted. “What about Holt?” The question was laced with wariness.
She folded her arms. “He’s in Vegas.”
His jaw tightening, Knox pushed out of his chair. “Are you sure?”
Oh, how she wished she wasn’t. “Yes. He approached me in the parking lot of my building yesterday.”
An animalistic growl rumbled out of Tanner as he stood so abruptly his chair wheeled backwards. “He approached you?”
“Why?” Keenan demanded, his expression dark. “What did the bastard want?”
She dug her teeth into her lower lip. “To form the anchor bond.”
“Motherfucker,” spat Levi, turning away.
Keenan’s face scrunched up. “He can’t seriously think you’d agree to that, or that you’d ever even think about it.”
“That was pretty much what I said,” Larkin told him. “But it would appear that he does.”
His eyes flat and dead, Knox took a slow step toward her. “What exactly did he say?” His voice was low and so eerily calm it was unnatural—an indication that he was pissed.
Larkin gripped the edge of the desk behind her. “That he understands if I hate him; that he’s essentially spent years regretting how things played out way-back-when; that he’s changed now and wants to both win my trust and claim me as his anchor.”
Rising to his feet, a scowling Keenan perched his hands on his hips. “If he’s really been regretting it all these years, why didn’t he come back for you sooner?” he challenged.
“Yeah, I pointed out that he’d have done exactly that if he’d truly longed to fix the situation. He only said, ‘I’m here now’. Like that was what mattered.” She let out a low, disgusted snort. “He didn’t say much else. I told him to leave and then I headed into my building.”
Knox very slowly cocked his head. “How do you feel about Holt being here?” he asked carefully, his gaze probing. “Truthfully? I know you’re rightfully angry with him. But is there a part of you that wishes he could earn your trust and become a part of your life the way he always should’ve been?”
She frowned. “No. You know me, Knox. You know that mental doors slam shut in my mind if someone betrays or hurts me. Those doors will never open for that person again.” It wasn’t something she could consciously control.
“Yes, but Holt isn’t just anyone,” Knox pointed out. “He’s your psi-mate. I don’t want you to later regret that you sent him away. No one here would judge you if you gave him a shot to see if he really has changed. We might not like him, but we’d support you whatever your choice. What’s important here isn’t how we would feel about it; it’s that you make the right decision for you. So be honest with yourself. Do you want him in your life? Do you want to form the anchor bond?
Those questions were easy to answer. “No and no. Though I appreciate that you’d support me no matter what.”
“And your demon? How does it feel about all this?”
“It’s on the same page as me. It would never bond with him. Ever. He did the one thing that the entity could never forgive.”
“He left you,” said Knox with a nod of understanding.
Abandonment was a real hot button for her demon. “Neither I nor the entity are at all moved by the fact that he might actually be willing to make any of the concessions or sacrifices he’d once point-blank refused to make.”
Knox slipped his hands into his pockets, twisting his mouth. “I don’t see why he wouldn’t. There’s certainly no reason why he couldn’t. He’s in a better situation nowadays.”
She blinked. “How exactly?”
“I didn’t tell you this before now because you don’t like to talk about him or hear what’s going on in his life. He’s no longer a sentinel. He’s Prime of his lair.”
Her smile held a cutting edge. “Just as he always wanted.” Even she heard the bitter note in her voice.
“Now that he doesn’t answer to anyone any longer, he has the freedom to play however large a part in your life as he pleases.”
No, he didn’t. Because she wouldn’t allow it. Her demon would fight her on it if she tried. “It also means he’d now want more than ever for me to join his lair and be close to him.”
“Yes, he won’t want you answering to another Prime,” Knox confirmed. “Especially when I have no alliance with him.”
Larkin bit out a curse, her grip tightening on the edges of the desk. “I hate that he came here. Why couldn’t he have just stayed away?”
