Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 93727 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 469(@200wpm)___ 375(@250wpm)___ 312(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93727 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 469(@200wpm)___ 375(@250wpm)___ 312(@300wpm)
“You shouldn’t want to leave me,” she screamed, grabbing a wrench off the workbench to throw at me. “If we were mated, it would be agony for you to leave me.”
“It is agony,” I argued, catching it.
“Oh, yeah, a six out of ten. Sounds really terrible.”
“I lied,” I roared, dropping the wrench.
“Yeah, right.”
“I fucking hate leaving you,” I said, moving toward her. She backed away with each step, and a part of me liked it. I wanted to fucking chase her. This time, she’d never make it into the loft.
My emotions were too close to the surface. The small box that I’d stuffed them into on the day we’d seen Zeke’s mutilated body was coming apart at the seams.
Anger pounded between my temples. At Zeke. At the people who’d murdered him. At the situation I’d found myself in, torn between my family and my mate. At Rosemary for not understanding that I was trying to do the right thing.
“What’s wrong with your eyes?” Rosemary asked. She lifted her chin a bit, but I could hear the tremor in her voice.
“Nothing,” I lied.
“That’s not nothing,” she argued. “It’s like they’re flickering.”
“Stop talking about my eyes.”
“I can’t—”
“You should’ve told me how bad it was,” I said, catching her around the waist. I ignored the way she strained against my arms. “I had no idea—”
“Well, now you do,” she said as she stopped trying to pull away. “Tell me, what difference does it make?”
“I know now.”
“So you’re going to start taking me with you?”
When I didn’t immediately reply, she scoffed.
“That’s what I thought.”
It wasn’t that simple. How in the hell was I supposed to willingly put her in danger? Once she was out in the world again, she’d be seen. Once she was seen, she’d be on their radar again. It wasn’t a matter of if, but when.
But I couldn’t stop searching for the Vampires and humans responsible for murdering my brother. I had to be out there, following up on leads and watching my brothers’ backs.
Didn’t she realize that the only way I could do that was if I knew she was safe here with her pop?
How had I become the fucking bad guy in this scenario for protecting my mate?
“You know what?” she said after a moment, taking a step away. “It’s fine. I’m fine. You keep doing what you’re doing, and I’ll keep doing what I’m doing, and we can meet up once a day to fuck and exchange blood. That works for plenty of mates, and my body will just have to deal.”
“You know that’s not what I want,” I argued, following her out of the barn. My frustration grew. “I’m here with you twenty-one hours of the fucking day, Rosemary. Don’t act like you’re being neglected here.”
“Oh, I’m not.”
“What the fuck?” I barked, stopping at the edge of the patio. “I understand that it’s been hard for you. It’s been hard for me too. None of this shit is normal.”
Rosemary spun to face me, backlit by the porch light.
“You know, I’ve never been the woman who follows her partner around begging for scraps. It’s just not my personality. It’s like, you want to do your own thing? Cool. Me too. But when you told me that I was your mate, I thought we’d be in this shit together.” She shook her head. “It is physically painful, to the point of losing all logic, when we’re apart. Them’s the breaks. I knew it would happen, and I was prepared for it because I know that mating bonds happen for a reason. What I didn’t know is that you would ignore the fucking bond unless it suited you.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but didn’t even get a word out before she continued.
“Yes, that’s exactly what you’re doing. Your mate is a highly trained operator. Whether or not you acknowledge that fact is your issue. It doesn’t change the truth. Instead of keeping me with you the way nature fucking intended, you’ve basically forbidden me from leaving this property while you go out hunting bad guys. Hell, you’re not even hunting them at this point. You’re trying to figure out who they are.”
“You know they’re looking for you,” I shot back.
“I know that you’re convinced they’re looking for me,” Rosemary spat. “That’s what I know. I also know that you’re so afraid of your own fucking shadow that you’re ignoring the fact that you’re not the only one in this. Even if we ignored that you’ve been putting me through excruciating physical symptoms because you didn’t think they’d be that bad, I was working on discovering who these assholes were before you were, you self-righteous asshole!”
She stormed into the house, letting the door slam before I could catch it. I nearly tore it off the hinges as I followed her inside.