Total pages in book: 165
Estimated words: 159487 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 797(@200wpm)___ 638(@250wpm)___ 532(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 159487 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 797(@200wpm)___ 638(@250wpm)___ 532(@300wpm)
“When will we know if it worked?” she asked Severin in a hushed voice. “I mean, when will he—”
“Sev, you fucker!” The deep rumbling voice belonged to Ravik and when she looked down, she saw that his eyes were open again and they were blazing gold with fury. Not even a tiny bit of the white virus film remained. Sitting up, he glared at his friend.
“What the fuck did you do to me?” he demanded. “Did you just fucking bite me and inject me like I was your fucking mate?”
“Yes, I did,” Severin said, frowning. “But I had to. You see—”
But he didn’t get any further before Ravik punched him in the jaw.
46
CASSIE
“Oh my God—oh, no—stop!” Cassie gasped, jumping to her feet.
But her words fell on deaf ears because the two huge warriors were already going at it.
For one awful second, Severin didn’t even defend himself. He just sat there on the ground, his fangs still wet with the essence he’d injected into Ravik’s system and his mouth already bleeding from the punch his best friend had just landed. The blow had snapped his head to the side and knocked his oculars askew, but he didn’t raise a hand to strike back.
He just took it.
Cassie stared at him in horror, feeling like her heart had lurched up into her throat. He had saved Ravik’s life. He had risked his own life to carry the cure in his body, then bitten Ravik because there had been no other choice. And now Ravik was looking at him like Severin had done something monstrous.
“Ravik, stop!” she shouted. “He saved you!”
The big Beast Kindred rounded on her, his golden eyes blazing. They were completely clear now—not a single trace of milky-white fog left in them—but somehow that made the fury in them worse. He was fully himself again, or close enough to it that every word he said sounded deliberate.
“You don’t understand what he fucking did to me!” he snarled.
“I understand that you told him to bite you!” Cassie snapped back. “You told him to do it before you hurt us!”
Ravik’s jaw clenched so hard she could see a muscle jump. His face was flushed dark with rage and something else too—shame, maybe—or humiliation. Whatever it was, it was eating at him just as surely as the Hunger Virus had been a few minutes ago.
“He used me like a woman,” Ravik growled.
The words seemed to strike Severin harder than the punch had.
Cassie saw it happen—Severin’s face went completely still and cold, but his eyes changed. Something painful flickered there, something sharp and wounded and quickly hidden behind that icy Blood Kindred control he wore like armor.
Then it was gone.
“Healing essence works through sexual response,” Severin said, his voice low and clipped. “You know that. You have always known that.”
“I know you put your fangs in my throat and made me come like I was your fucking mate!” Ravik roared.
“You were dying!” Severin shouted back, and this time his voice cracked like a whip. “You were turning right in front of us. You begged me to stop you before you hurt Cassandra. So I did—the only way I could!”
Cassie flinched at the force of his voice. She had heard Severin frustrated before—had seen him cool and clinical and aroused and stern and worried—but she had never heard him sound like this. Like all the fear he had been carrying for months had finally torn through the careful shell he kept around himself and it was pouring out of him like blood.
But Ravik didn’t back down.
“And what about the rest of it?” he demanded, taking a step toward Severin. “What about the things I’m starting to remember? Cassie between us. Your hands on her. Her mouth on both of us.” His voice dropped into a rough, furious growl. “What the fuck did you let happen when I was out of my mind?”
Cassie felt her face go hot and cold at the same time.
Oh God, he was remembering.
Not all of it, maybe—not clearly—but enough. Enough to know that the three of them had crossed some very forbidden lines in the bunker. Enough to know Severin had been part of it…enough to realize that he himself had not fought it at the time but had joined in willingly.
“Ravik,” she said quickly, stepping between them. “Nothing happened that I didn’t choose. Nothing happened that you didn’t agree to as much as you were able.”
But the big Beast Kindred barely seemed to hear her. His eyes were fixed on Severin now, and the look on his face scared her more than the Infected had. Because this was not mindless rage—this was pain turned outward.
Severin got slowly to his feet.
“I did not take advantage of you,” he said, and his voice was quieter now, which somehow made everything worse. “I did not force you. I didn’t force Cassandra, either. Everything that happened between the three of us happened because her body was fighting the virus and because you responded to her as your mate.”