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My monster wanted out—neededout—right now.
“Mate,”I said, voice taut as my marks began to burn. “Mate now.”
I didn’t know what had taken control of me, but the heat rushed through my body the same way it had a couple of weeks ago when I was alone with Calder. Except, this time … I wanted someone else entirely. I didn’t thinkanyof these guys could satisfy my hunger.
I needed Darius.
“Mate!” I howled.
Less than a minute later, Darius pushed the prison door open and stepped into the silent room. I snapped my wrists and ankles against the heavy chains, desperate to escape, desperate for him. It was like my beast had sensed he was close.
“Let me out,” I growled.
But when Darius looked at me for the first time this morning, I froze. He looked like he had been rubbing his red eyes or as if he hadn’t slept at all last night. His beard was unkempt, very unlike him.
“Please, let me out,” I whispered, voice smaller than those angry growls, suppressing my inner beast easily this time.
Something with Darius seemed off today, off since maybe even last night. I didn’t know what it was, but I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that he had just left me on our night we were supposed to be together.
I had wanted to spend the night with both of them.
After convincing Thayer to release me, I gently rubbed the marks on my wrists and sat up in the torture chair. Thayer, Gaian, and Calder talked tensely with each other on the other side of the room, going over ways to bring out even other species that might be hibernating inside me.
Once I slipped out of the chair, I walked over to Darius. “Where have you been?”
Darius sighed softly. “Just … out.”
“Doing what?”
“Helping Hellana settle into pack life.”
Jealousy ripped through me. “Hellana? The pregnant woman I saved?”
“Yeah, we placed her in a cabin near a couple of strong warriors.”
I clenched my fists by my sides. “Why were you with her?”
All I wanted to say was thatIhad needed him last night and this morning, when I woke up and when I trained to become stronger. And now, he was telling me that he had been with another woman. Sure, she might’ve meant nothing to him, but still …
He hadn’t had to leave last night without a word. He could’ve told me where he was going. Why in the world would he keep it a secret? Why wouldn’t he come home? Why did something feel incredibly off today?
Before Darius could answer me, Calder grabbed my wrist. “We’re taking a break.”
“No,” I said, standing my ground. “Why don’t you, Gaian, and Thayer prepare in the yard behind the pack house? I can practice shifting in a few minutes. I need to talk to Darius, please, Calder.”
After Calder told me that I had better get my ass upstairs soon, he walked back over to the others. I turned back to Darius to see him tenser than before as he drew his tongue across his pearly-white teeth and stared at the ground.
“They’re stressing me out,” I admitted to Darius, hoping to lighten the mood and not come at him, attacking him for this. But I needed to know. I glanced over his shoulder at Thayer, Calder, and Gaian, who all walked up the stairs and talked tensely with each other about what seemed to be … me—or the marks on my neck to be exact now. “We’ve been at this all morning.”
“Yeah, they love you,” Darius said, chuckling nervously and scratching the back of his head. While he was usually inviting, he had barely looked me in the eye today, and it kinda made me uneasy.
Did he not want to mark me? Was that why we hadn’t saidI love you?
My stomach twisted into knots, but I swallowed my insecurities and stepped toward him. “I, um …” Nerves zipped up and down my arms. I needed to just come out with it already. “Is everything okay? You seem off.”
“Everything’s fine, Sina,” he said.
He used my real name. Sina and not Pretty Bird.
