Page 36

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

I don’t make it more than three steps into my room back at Jocasta’s faction house before the door is slammed shut and I feel a thunderstorm looming behind me.

“What the hell were you thinking?” Draven snaps, stalking up behind me.

We were allowed to eat and bathe in the private rooms underneath the arena while we waited for the other teams to finish the game, which took longer than I had expected.

So I’m fed and clean and the ache from when the Red Faction tried to strangle me with a whip has already healed, but I’m still exhausted and not in the mood for this argument.

So I drag in a long breath before turning to face the furious dragon shifter behind me.

He’s standing there, tall and powerful like the ruthless commander he is, still in his black dragon scale armor, looking incredibly out of place in this elegant room.

Sheer white drapes flutter gently in the warm breeze that blows in through the open windows, and bright sunlight glints in the unlit faelight gems that have been placed into swirling holders made of gold.

The bed, covered in sheets in cream and gold, has been made perfectly by the people who came in to clean while we were at the game.

And in the middle of all that serenity stands a furious shadow of death.

“You’re gonna have to narrow that down,” I reply, meeting Draven’s gaze.

His golden eyes flash with lightning. “You know exactly what I’m talking about!”

“We won, didn’t we?” I retort, feeling the anger rise in my own chest.

“You could’ve been killed!”

“So could you!”

“Don’t fucking start with me. You and I both know that I would’ve had better odds against nine people than you did.”

Frustration rips at my chest. Mostly because he’s right. Grinding my teeth, I cross my arms to protect myself against the storm of emotions that has been raging inside me for months now and that is threatening to break free.

“Instead of getting angry, you could’ve just said thank you,” I snipe back at him.

Disbelief pulses across his face. “For what? You almost getting yourself killed?”

“I was protecting you!”

He blinks, looking stunned.

Forcing out a harsh breath, I uncross my arms and instead rake my fingers through my hair in frustration.

That knot of pent-up emotions twists like snakes in my chest. Behind me, the gauzy curtains ripple again, and a warm wind smelling of blooming flowers and warm stone ripples through the room, making my hair flutter. I let my arms drop again.

“I was protecting you,” I repeat, glaring up at Draven.

“You once confronted me about how I always take care of everyone else while no one takes care of me. Well, you’re the same, you stubborn idiot.

You’re so used to doing everything on your own.

But you don’t have to do everything on your own anymore! ”

Draven just stares at me for a moment, looking uncertain.

But then that frustrated anger returns, and he blows out a forceful breath.

“But that’s the problem. You didn’t try to help me.

You shoved me through a fucking wall and then locked it behind me so that you could do it on your own.

Our best chance of beating them was together ! ”

Logically, I know that he is right. But I wasn’t thinking logically when I made that decision. Those furious emotions thrum inside me, threatening to break through my ribcage. I drag in a deep breath, trying to calm the storm.

“So why the hell did you lock me out to face them on your own?” Draven snaps, throwing his arms out in frustration.

Anger crackles through me. “Because they had whips !”

“I can handle?—”

“I don’t care! I’m not letting anyone near you with a fucking whip ever again!”

“That’s why you did it?”

“Of course it is!”

“That’s insane! The whips weren’t going to kill me. But you , you could have died! Why would you risk your life like that?”

“Because I love you!”

He jerks back, staring at me with wide eyes. His mouth is still open, stuck on his next argument, but no words make it out.

My chest heaves, and everything inside my soul is thrumming with desperate tension, but I can’t stop now. The words keep pouring out of my mouth like an unstoppable flood.

“I love you,” I repeat, my heart beating out of control.

“And I have loved you ever since we fell through the ceiling of that underground forest and you flipped us over to protect me from the hits and then handcuffed me and pulled me close and held me as I slept and then challenge me about why I treat my own dreams as less important than everyone else’s and then when the dryads attacked, I couldn’t bear the thought of something happening to you.

” My chest heaves, and I drag in another breath, still holding Draven’s stunned gaze.

“I have loved you for months now, but I’ve been too much of a stubborn coward to admit it. ”

He draws in an unsteady breath, staring at me as if he’s afraid that if he takes his eyes off me for one second, I will disappear and none of this will have happened. “What about the mate bond?”

“Fuck the mate bond! I don’t care that some mystical force has decided that we’re supposed to be together.” Fire burns inside me as I hold his gaze, letting him see that I mean every word of this. “Do you know why?”

“Why?” he breathes, the word barely more than a whisper.

“Because I would have chosen you anyway. There is no world, no universe, no version of reality where I wouldn’t have chosen you. I would always. Choose. You.”

He draws in a shuddering breath, emotions pulsing in his glittering golden eyes.

“I have—” I begin.

But then something breaks free in my chest. Like an explosion of color and light, it shatters through the thick stone walls that I have kept around my heart these past few months.

The experience is so intense that I gasp and stagger a step back.

Emotions flood my chest.

And not all of them are mine.

Pressing a hand against my chest, I stare down at it as if I can see all the emotions swirling in there.

My heart pounds underneath my palm. I can feel my own emotions.

The thrill, the vulnerability, and the utter relief of finally having admitted, both to Draven and to myself, how I really feel.

The searing love for him that threatens to consume me.

The excitement and nervousness about the future.

But I can also feel… him .

There, deep inside, I can faintly feel the echo of another set of emotions. Shock. Disbelief. Hope. And love so deep it could burn the world down. And from it all is an invisible thread. A physical tug more than something visual. Raising my head, I look up towards where it leads.

Straight to Draven.

“This…” I begin, trying to think through the shock of this realization. “ This is the mate bond, isn’t it?”

He smiles then. And the smile is so bright and so full of devastating hope that my heart squeezes tight.

“The mate bond finally snapped into place for you too,” he says.

My head is spinning. I realize that I’m still pressing a hand to my chest, so I force myself to remove it and instead rake my fingers through my hair. My heart beats hard against my ribs. Blowing out a long breath to steady myself, I let my hand drop back down before I meet Draven’s gaze again.

“But if this is the mate bond,” I begin, staring at him with wide eyes. “Then everything I felt before…”

“Was all you.” His gaze is serious as he looks back at me. “The mate bond only snaps into place after you have already fallen in love with the person.”

“After,” I echo, feeling shellshocked.

Amusement tugs at his lips, and his eyes glitter, as he adds, “Though you have apparently been fighting against it for months now.”

Shock still clangs inside my skull like a bell. After. The mate bond only snaps into place after you have already fallen in love with the person. It doesn’t draw you to them. It doesn’t force any feelings onto you. It happens afterwards.

My heart beats so hard against my ribs that I fear it might bruise them.

But nothing can stop the sense of relief that washes over me like a warm ocean wave.

My emotions are my own. His emotions are his own. We have, and we always have had, free will to choose on our own. It’s real. Everything he’s said and everything he’s done for me. It’s all real.

Looking up, I stare at Draven again, my soul feeling both full and cavernous at the same time. “Why didn’t you tell me? You knew that I hated the thought of not choosing on my own. Why didn’t you tell me that it only happens after you’ve already fallen in love?”

“Because I wanted you to choose me too.” He glances away for a moment, looking uncharacteristically uncertain, before he meets my gaze again. “I didn’t want you to settle for me. I wanted you to choose me. Despite it all.”

“Settle?” A stunned laugh escapes my chest. Staring up at him, I shake my head in disbelief. “Do you seriously think it would be even remotely possible for anyone to settle for you?”

“Anyone? No. You? Yes.” He steps closer, his eyes searing into mine as he slides a hand along my jaw. “How could I possibly be enough to deserve you when the gods themselves would go to war to have you?”

My heart stutters.

Yanking my hand up, I slide it behind his neck and pull his perfect mouth to mine.

A moan rips from deep within his chest as his lips crash against mine.

His hand slides down from my jaw to instead rest against the side of my neck, his thumb underneath my chin to keep my head tilted back as he claims my lips.

I tighten the grip on the back of his neck and draw my other hand up his chest, wishing that I could feel his warm body against my palm.

The mate bond thrums inside me, and that tug I feel towards him intensifies. I moan into his mouth as he slides his other arm around my waist, pulling me tight against his muscular body.

Desire burns through me like wildfire.

I want him. I want all of him. All the time. Forever.