Page 142 of Blood Day

Yet the answer whispered in his mind, words that had me clenching around him.

I won’t have a choice.

Meaning he would share me and allow someone to break this bond. Not necessarily because he desired it, but because he would have to.

My heart shriveled inside, my mind blanking out for a fraction of a second.

Until he began to move again, reminding me of his claim.

The bond thrived, forcing my body to react favorably to his intrusion.

Another climax built, spilling through me in pleasurable agony.

But in its wake was a weakening heart.

A heart that had just begun to beat for the first time.

Just to startle at the realization that Cedric could only temporarily be mine.

Our destinies were simply meant to cross for this brief moment in our lives.

In a blink, that link between us would end.

He would go on surviving.

While I would suffer a fate worse than death.

All because he chose to mate me for a brief experience, knowing I could never truly be his.

He kissed me, his tongue voicing an apology I didn’t want to feel. But he left me no choice, his body still taking mine, his arousal a hot brand that demanded release.

When he came, it was my name he whispered. However, it didn’t sound pleasurable so much as pained.

A pain I very much understood, as it rivaled my own ache deep inside.

This was the cruelest game of all—a glimpse into the life we could have had, knowing full well it would die just as quickly as it’d begun.

Chapter 30

Cedric

“You’ll let that happen?”

Lily’s words haunted me, keeping me from chasing her into her dreams. She’d been physically sated and emotionally exhausted, her mind easily taking her under for some much-needed rest.

But not mine.

My mind refused to do anything other than repeat that phrase and the feelings that had followed.

I hadn’t been able to answer her. Not out loud, anyway. Because I didn’t much care for the response—“I won’t have a choice.”

Silvano would force me to break the bond. He didn’t allow for such complications, and as my maker, I would have no choice but to follow through on the command.

He’d take my sweet flower and ruin her.

Unless I killed her first.

I drew my fingers through her hair, reveling in the silky texture. Her soul had married mine, making her immortal. Which meant her life would be prolonged to withstandeternity. An intimate gift vampires very rarely bestowed upon a human mate.