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But now, spoken in the heat of the moment, she deeply regretted the targeted insult.
If she looked deeper, she could appreciate that the Raeth healer had proven his merit over the course of the centuries that yawned between them. He’d saved others’ lives countless times, including her own fledgling, not to mention her own.
Striding to the window, she watched as Kaien marched angrily toward the small pile of uncut firewood. Palming the axe, Kaien balanced the splintered wood on a hacked off tree trunk. With a single swing of the tool, he’d split the wood in two, the pieces flying off in opposing directions.
Undeniable strength pulsed through the man, the axe functioning as an extra appendage. The muscular lines of his frame flexed with every swing of the blade. Biting her lip to keep from sighing in appreciation, she felt needlessly voyeuristic at her leisurely perusal of his heaving form.
She kept observing as latent heat bloomed in her gut, unable to look away.
Chapter Nine
RageblisteredunderKaien’sskin. His jaw was clamped shut so tightly that the muscles groaned in protest. Wood split with a sharp crack at every heave of the axe.
It was everything he could do to keep from stalking back into the cabin and giving the vampire a piece of his mind. Arguably worse was that he believed her. He’d been handed every position in his life because of his twin, not by anything he’d done.
Venting his frustrations on inanimate objects was his only outlet. His palms, screaming from the grip he kept on the axe’s handle, began to blister and perspire.
Blasted recoil.
Thanks to Blair, he was powerless and a thousand miles away from his sister when she needed him most. He was without a way to contact any of the clan’s lieutenants, and even if they attempted to telepath him, it wouldn’t go through. It wouldn’t evenregister.
For all intents and purposes, he was dead to his clan. He wasfailingthem.
And what was he doing instead? Playing nursemaid to an antagonistic vampire that’d somehow managed to kickstart a mating bond because she’d bitten him. Amate—and the word sat bitterly in his stomach—who’d just claimed that anything he’d accomplished in life was the result of nepotism.
The explosive fury in his mind fluctuated between resenting her scathing remark and bitterly loathing her audacity to claim his mating bond by an errant strike of her fangs.
His eyes went to the scabbed-over puncture wounds that marked his forearm. How was this even possible? In all twelve hundred years of his life, he’d never heard of a mating like this. And now? He’d be forced into an unrequited mating with a woman who’d as soon kill him than kiss him.
As he pondered his situation, he realized that last one wasn’t quite true.
Long before the bond flared to life, he’d been intrigued with the vampire. Enthralled, even. Upon their introduction eight centuries ago, Kaien had sensed an inherent pull toward her that couldn’t be justified by any normal means.
Whenever they were in the same vicinity, he longed to close the distance between them and savor her touch. Longed to capture her lips with his and claim her in every conceivable way.
It was why he’d vehemently pushed her away, why he’d intentionally soured the waters between them. He’d justified it back then because she was his sister’s friend—a glorified pet—and he’d realized that his duty to his clan had to come first. He was desperate to prove that he was worth something, and not just because of his blood relations.
Now he was stuck with her, the bond between them growing stronger with every passing hour they spent in each other’s presence.
Trapped in a loveless union with a ‘mate’ who despised him.
A sharp crack heralded the two splits of wood that crashed to the ground. Steadying another round log, Kaien’s fingers bit into the wood handle of the axe. The wood groaned beneath his fingers before it sliced through the air, the aim true.
This time, however, his grip slipped on the oily layer of perspiration that coated the handle. In hindsight, given his dampened reflexes, he shouldn’t have attempted to catch the flying blade that’d ricocheted off the stump.
The blade’s sharp edge sliced through his palm and an instant searing pain radiated up his arm in warning.
A curse bit out from between his teeth.
Dropping the axe to the ground with a clatter, he clutched his wrist with a firm grip. Kaien took stock of his hand, the blood dripping from between his clenched fingers.
It hadn’t been deep enough to sever the tendons—thankfully—but it’d perforated the flesh to where it’d bleed like a sieve. Without his healing ability and the added insult of being in recoil, it wouldn’t heal completely until he’d regained his gifts.
The slam of the screen door behind him was followed by the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps. Unerringly, the vampire was making her way toward him. Inhaling to steel himself against whatever sarcasm she was certain to lob his way, he turned to face her.
“How bad is it?”
Delicate fingers came to his palm seconds later, the contact tender. Sapphire blue eyes met his with unease, her eyebrows pulled together, but he didn’t want to give her the satisfaction of his pain. It wasn’t fair that when he looked at her face, something softer and deeper looked back at him.
