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Her struggles re-doubled, and when I let go of her with one hand to open the door, she almost managed to launch from my grip.
Fuck.
I just managed to catch her in time as she tumbled from my shoulder.
“You were the one taken!” I dragged her upright and pinned her against the door. “Why are youinsistingon being difficult?”
“Difficult?” she demanded. “I just want to sit in the fucking garden.”
“You’re my omega!” I spat, grip closing on her shoulders. “You won’t be taken on my watch ever again.”
She opened her mouth, but the fury died on her expression as her eyes darted between mine. Her whole body language changed, chest suddenly heaving, and her jaw clenched.
I frowned, letting her go, not sure what I was looking at. I could read anger, but I didn’t know what this was. Then her face crumpled, and—to my surprise—she burst into tears.
Uh… okay.
I wasn’t sure what to make of that.
I also wasn’t ready for the million thoughts cluttering my head, each a demand or idea of how I could fix it—and all likely entirely wrong.
But Vex had returned to us, off all her scent blocking drugs, and there was an unaccepted princess bond between us now. Every goddamned instinct was screaming in my head, more vicious than a drug in my bloodstream.
“I’ve got you, Vex. I’ll always keep you safe.”
Shit.
Don’tthink about that right now.
Those words—the ones I’d offered, and she’d written in blood—wouldn’t get out of my fucking brain.
The discomfort, that knot of threads I couldn’t untangle in what was usually a perfectly oiled system, it was back. The same feeling, the one I hadn’t been able to place, since the moment I’d read the book Rook had pulled out of the limo.
Her pain, because of me. And one line that I couldn’t shake.
It was like Drake, but a million times worse: she was mine. It was my job to protect her; I couldn’t be the one to hurt her.
That day I had lied with ease, just as I always had. And yet, never had a lie so painfully caught up with me as this one had, because I had to convince her that those same words were now my truth. And now she was crying, and I had no fucking idea why.
How wasanyonesupposed to plan for a mate?
Here she was standing before me: an entire free thinking, emotionally sensitive person around which my whole universe now orbited, and I didn’t… I didn’t know why she was crying.
My job was tonotmake her cry, and I’d done it without intending to. I’d driven her to tears before, but those times it had been on purpose. Here I was flying blind.
I was successful in life because I picked the battles I fought. I chose my goals to match my strengths and then I trashed the competition without blinking. But this… this was different.
This was a battle I couldn’t bow out of, and yet it required my greatest weakness. Manipulation—that I excelled in: changing minds, making people do things I wanted them to. Easy.
But changing their feelings?
Only, Love was right, I couldn’t sit this one out, watching from the background. I needed to be a part of her healing, too. Before I knew what I was doing I had her in my arms and I was sitting us down on a nearby daybed. I tucked a lock of hair behind her ear.
What would I be doing if it was Drake?
He was quieter than this, I had to read a lot more into smaller tells. Vex was still trembling, tears flooding her face.
“Love said…” Vex hiccupped. “He said you… fought for me.”
