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“There has to be another way to show him I belong to you!” I insisted. “Other than…doing something neither one of us is ready for.” I nodded down at my open trousers. “Because I’m not ready for that, Saint, and I don’t think you are either.”

Honestly, I wondered if he ever would be. It seemed to me that his Drake was driving him to do all this—I wondered if they shared any of the same inclinations at all or if Saint was just at the mercy of his cursed Drake’s desires.

“I know…” Saint stroked my cheek, looking down at me with those blazing eyes of his. “I’ll Mark you,” he murmured. “Then everyone will know you belong to me. That should satisfy my Drake.”

“What?” I protested. “A Blood Marking? But Saint—males don’t mark other males—you know that!”

“I know it and I don’t give a fuck,” he growled. He bared his teeth, which grew long and sharp at once—another partial change to show how close his Drake still was, I thought numbly. Then he pressed the pad of his thumb to one razor-sharp point, drawing a drop of ruby blood.

Before I could say anything else, he was pressing his thumb to my forehead, right between my eyebrows.

This can’t be happening, I thought. And then it felt as though my whole body was naked and I had been plunged into the middle of a snow storm. I could feel every separate snowflake as it caressed me and melted on my bare skin.

Slowly, the sensation faded and I knew that Saint’s Mark on me had taken. I hadn’t been sure that I wanted it but my body had accepted it anyway.

Can’t believe this is happening, I thought again. But it was. I was Marked as his and by the ancient laws of Magic, he owned me now, in a very specific and special way. No one else could touch me without incurring his wrath—it was as though Saint had put a “private property” sign on my forehead.

When I opened my eyes—which had been squeezed shut during the Marking—I saw him looking down at me.

“Is…is that enough?” I asked, my heart still pounding.

Saint shook his head.

“Not quite. Now you Mark me.”

“What?” I stared at him. “But…but Saint, that’s going to be so much more visible—on both of us.”

It was true—with just his Mark on me, it would be hard for people to see unless they were looking for it.

Kind of like wearing a flesh-colored bandage.

But if I Marked him back, it was going to be blatantly obvious to anyone at all in the Other community that we were saying we belonged to each other.

And, as I had pointed out before, males, didn’t mark males—it simply wasn’t done.

“Everyone is going to look at you and think you’re mine, which means they’re going to think you’re a, er, ‘lover-of-men,’” I pointed out to him. “Which you keep telling me you’re not. Are you sure you’re up for that?”

Saint frowned, his black brows drawing low on his forehead.

“It’s the only way to satisfy my Drake and keep others who want you away,” he said.

“They’ll stay away now that Megan has broken the spell,” I told him. Well, other than wanting to come after me and knock my teeth down my throat. But I didn’t say that.

“They’ll stay away because I’ve Marked you and you’ve Marked me,” he insisted. Before I could reply, he had taken my thumb and was pressing the pad of it to one long canine that was still razor sharp.

I gasped at the sharp little pain and watched numbly as Saint took my hand and pressed the drop of my blood to his forehead. He closed his eyes for a moment and I could feel a shiver running through his big body, since he was still lying mostly on top of me.

When he looked at me again, I thought I saw peace on his face.

“It’s done,” he said, cupping my cheek tenderly. “You’re mine, mi Corazon. And I am yours.”

“Does it make your Drake happy?” I asked, because I wasn’t sure how to feel about the Blood Markings that had just happened between us.

I knew my body had accepted Saint’s Mark because I had feelings for him— romantic feelings, despite knowing it was a bad idea to catch feelings for my straight roommate.

But how had Saint been able to accept my Mark? He kept claiming he wasn’t gay. If that was true, my Mark shouldn’t have had any effect on him. And yet it had—I’d felt it go through him and now I saw it glimmering softly, like a faint star on his forehead. How was it possible?

“My Drake is satisfied…for now.” Saint looked relieved. He dropped his head to my shoulder and drew in a deep, shuddering breath. “ Dios, it’s so fucking exhausting fighting with him all the time.”

Despite the traumatic scene we’d just been through together and my own confused feelings, I couldn’t help feeling sorry for him.

How difficult must it be to live with that flaming, raging madness locked up inside him all the time?

He must feel schizophrenic, constantly trying to control the angry, unreasonable Drake and keep his own sanity at the same time.

And now Saint had Blood Marked another male— me —just to keep the lunatic inside him happy, even though he didn’t consider himself to be gay.

What kind of consequences was he going to face for that?

He was already an outcast among his own people, but he would have to be ready to experience a whole new level of anger and scorn.

I knew from experience that it wasn’t easy being out in the magic world.

Not that he was really out, I reminded myself. He didn’t really have feelings for me—he had only Marked me to please his Drake. He…

Saint moved against me and made a soft sound.

“Hmm?” Looking down at him, I saw that he had fallen asleep with his head on my chest. His long, black eyelashes looked like fans against his high cheekbones and there was a look of utter exhaustion on his stern but handsome features.

Since he was no longer holding my arms above my head, I wrapped them around him.

Part of me knew this was wrong—I shouldn’t be cuddling with Saint this way.

I ought to be upset about the way things had gone between us—the rough way he’d handled me, the way he had basically forced me to take his Mark and then made me Mark him in turn—none of that was okay. Not at all.

And yet, I couldn’t find any anger in myself for the tall, dark Drake. To the contrary, I found that the feelings I had been fighting for him had actually grown .

Don’t be stupid, I told myself. Don’t let yourself fall all the way, Avery. You’ll be sorry if you do!

But I couldn’t seem to help it. Cradling my roommate against me, I let myself drift off to sleep as well. It had been a long, tiring day and I knew for certain tomorrow was going to be rough as well.