Page 44 of Balance

“He wants you to yell at him,” Titus explained, shoving his hands in his pockets and pressing his shoulder against the wall. We were close enough to where I needed to crane my neck to meet his eyes, and my throat closed at the barely restrained emotions there. There was a circle of red around his irises, and a visible pulse at his temple. “But he isn’t the kind of man to pay attention to the details. He has a vision in his mind, and sometimes he forgets important things while he goes after it.”

“Why does he want me to yell at him?” A lump formed in my throat. I had really messed this up—was I wrong to be upset, or should I have given in to my initial reaction?

“He’s been at it all day.” Titus’s voice was a low growl.

“Butwhy?” This made absolutely no sense. What in the world would possess him to act so stupid? “Why is he trying to make me angry?”

“Anger means you’re healing,” Titus explained, brushing his thumb against my cheek. His touch jolted me, causing the hair on my arms to rise. “It means you’re one step closer to fully accepting your role.”

“Did you notice that Damen was acting weird after I connected with Julian?” I shivered, hoping that Titus didn’t notice my reaction. This was silly to be acting like this now. We’d touched before, many times. So why was I suddenly feeling so breathless? “I thought he didn’t want to bond with me.”

Titus’s lips curled, an almost feral smile breaking over his expression, and his eyes moved over my face. “He doesn’t.”

I blinked at him, unable to hold back the twinge of hurt.

Damendidn’twant me?

But then—the doubt faded into something else, something almost foreboding as Damen’s words echoed through my mind.

‘I swear you have my future,’ he’d said.

Somehow, despite my anxieties about fitting in and my role, I knew that this was true. His words were an oath, deep with promise, and had resounded somewhere inside me.

Yet…

This didn’t seem to be the right time to clear up Titus’s misconception.

Besides, when all this was said and done, unless Damen started wising up, I might not wanthim. I might put up with a lot, but I refused to be infantilized.

If it was a fight Damen was looking for, I would fight. He had no idea who he was dealing with—I was the prankster queen. We were about to go hiking, and what a shame it would be if something… unfortunate happened to him.

“But he can’t stop himself either,” Titus continued, oblivious to the war raging in my thoughts, as he dropped his hand.

“W-what about you?” I was almost afraid to ask. Besides the whole mating thing, we hadn’t discussed much about our quintet relationship.

“Oh, we’ll bond. Don’t worry about me,” Titus said silkily, shrugging. “But first, focus on Miles. Knowing him, he’ll need your help.”

“You act like he annoys you,” I breathed, the rest of the room falling away. It was hard to think past the imposing aura surrounding me. The longer he stayed at my side, the more it felt that his presence was clawing its way inside me—the more my skin buzzed.

His grin widened, as did my eyes.

“You’re doing this on purpose! What are you doing?”

“Testing something,” Titus replied, the red fading from his eyes.

“What’s something?” I reached up, lightly tugging a lock of his hair. Somehow, it felt familiar to act this way, and my wavering confidence rebounded. “Are you sure I’m okay?”

“You’re fine,” he purred, raising my wrist to his mouth as he pressed his lips against the skin there. “Are you feeling any better?”

“Yes…” Realization washed over me, but I didn’t pull away. “Are you doing something with my emotions? Like Julian does?”

He shook his head, gaze flickering to the left, where Julian had joined Damen at the counter. “Julian doesn’t control your emotions,” he reminded me. “He guides your physical reactions to make it easier for you to focus on certain emotions, and he can read how you feel. That’s entirely different.”

That wasn’t different at all.

“I’m shielding you,” Titus continued. “While you have been learning the difference between your emotions and others, you’re still an empath. You’ve gotten much better, but you also haven’t had a break for a while. Are you angry at Damen?”

“Yes.” The answer escaped before I stopped myself, and I pressed my hands to my mouth. “Is that bad?”