Page 149 of Cruelly Bitten

“You can do whatever you want, Izzy,” he said softly, his use of my nickname sending a chill down my spine. It felt familiaryet foreign at the same time. Like it was wrong coming from his mouth. Except it was also oddly pacifying.

I’m not going to hold you back or tie you down,he added into my mind.I’ll do whatever I need to do to make this right. I’ll kill anyone who so much as looks at you the wrong way. But I won’t tell you what to do. I won’t make decisions without you. And I won’t disappear on you again.

I swallowed, unsure of how to respond to all that. Primarily because it sounded a lot like a vow. One I wasn’t sure I should accept. Yet I craved to do just that, to crawl into his lap and rekindle a millennium-old bond.

Rather than decide—or even consider my options—I focused on the task that had led to his declaration.Calling Damien.

Cam had said I could do whatever I wanted.

So I decided to test that theory.

And to also attempt to find a note of normalcy. Something to distract my mind.To ground myself in the present.

“I need a phone,” I told Cam. “I want to talk to Damien.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

RYDER

“Still stalking your mate?”Kylan drawled as he took over the executive-style chair beside me. “I’d have thought that would lessen with time, but you still watch her as though you’re afraid you might lose her.”

“Not all of us maintain mental connections with our mates,” I reminded him. “Some of us rely on physical communication instead.”

Kylan snorted. “All of us rely on physical communication. That’s the best part of the bond.”

“Hmm,” I hummed, agreeing with him there. But Willow and I took our physical link to a different level. We were both viscerally aware of one another at all times.

Like now.

She could feel my eyes on her. Just as she could hear what I was saying from across the jet, her mixed lycan and vampire genetics providing her with unique senses.

Her eyes flicked to mine, a knowing smile lurking in her ice-blue depths.

I didn’t respond to that look. But I didn’t need to. Simply holding her gaze was enough.

She knew how I felt about her. How obsessed I was with having her near. She was my other half. A missing piece of my soul.My heart.

There hadn’t even been a question in my mind as to whether or not she would come with me on this mission.

And given that she sat across from Rae now, it seemed Kylan had felt the same about his mate.

Kylan reached forward to pour us both a glass of blood wine, his focus on Rae rather than on his task. Yet he executed the task flawlessly, handing me a glass before taking his own.

“Darius and Jace seem to feel that we should be preparing our mates for this meeting,” he murmured. “But I’m rather tired of watching Raelyn bow for others. I’m the only one who has earned that right.”

The female in question glanced up at him with an arched eyebrow, her auburn strands flowing like fire against her pale features. She narrowed her eyes, the icy color reminding me of Willow’s irises.

“I don’t think she agrees with you,” I mused.

“Oh, she agrees,” he assured me. “I’ll remind her why later.” The sensual promise in those words had Raelyn—who preferred to be calledRae—blushing in response. “But it won’t be at this meeting.”

I hummed in agreement again, my eyes still on Willow. “Jace and Darius prefer to play the game. However, I’ve never been all that fond of rules—implied or otherwise.”

Kylan smirked. “Hence Lilith’s head in your freezer.”

“I would have burned it,” I admitted. “Show-and-tell is already done. But Damien wants to turn it into some sort of wall mount. I’m not sure I want to see it that often.”

“It may be useful to keep for whenever this Blood Alliance meeting happens,” Kylan added. “Assuming it’s rescheduled again.”