Page 20 of It's in His Bite
I didn’t bother to deny it. It was obvious it had to be me. We were literally stuck here for the last two days.
“You know I won’t hold it against you. She’s an adult, and you were without other options.” His eyes flicked red for a heartbeat. “Stop freaking out that I’m going to stake you over needing to feed.”
“That’s not the reason,” I groused.
He dropped into that deceptively patient quiet, the one he used to lure in the idiots who were barely adults and thought they were above the ethics code of the clan. Idiots like Miles fucking Brown last year.
“It… wasn’t just a feeding,” I finally admitted.
It took a moment for the words to process.
All at once, the air grew charged with a violent undercurrent. Joshua’s eyes flashed bright red as his lips pulled away from his fangs in a lethal, silent snarl. He struck before I could prepare for it. The sound registered before the pain, and then blood was flowing down my face. My eyes watered as I cradled my now-broken nose. Joshua was already pulling back for another strike.
While I believed I deserved every single one, I shot my hand out and grabbed his wrist. Meridith would kill us both if we stained the carpet in here, no matter it was technically Joshua’s preferred study and not hers.
“Bloody hell,” I muttered.
Joshua’s snarl was unearthly, full of promised violence. I’d harmed his child, and he would kell me for it. He ripped out of my hold and then moved faster than I’d ever seen in our decades of friendship. One moment my nails were sharpening into his wrists, tiny drops of blood welling beneath them, and then the next my cheek was pressed against the mahogany wood of his desk, both my arms pinned to the small of my back.
My nose had stopped bleeding, at least.
“Goddamn it, Joshua.” I tried to push out of his hold, but his grip only tightened. And then he was digging through one of the desk drawers. I didnt need to see the flash of light wood to know where his thoughts had gone. My stomach clenched as fear tightened my throat. “Give me two seconds to explain.”
“You have one,” he growled.
“We’re Fated.”
Just saying it was a relief. She was mine just like I was hers, down to every last unworthy cell within my own body.
He froze, not even breathing. The stake flashed in my vision for a heartbeat, and I tried to prep myself for it, tried to keep the feel of Harlowe wrapped around me—her body draped over mine as she shivered with aftershocks—the last thought that would be in my mind when he did it. I knew when I first tasted her, when I let it escalate to more than just that needed sustenance, Joshua would kill me. But, bloody hell, I needed one more time with her, one more laugh and kiss and knowing look. I needed to be with her when she moved to France.
I needed to tell her I wanted everything with her even if I was the biggest downgrade of her life.
The truth of that settled in my bones. All of the worries, the very real reasons why I shouldn’t tie her to me, should allow her to find someone else, fell away. Goddamn it, she wasmine. Not just her blood, but her body and her soul, too. We matched, and I needed to see her accomplish everything she desired.
“Fated?” Joshua’s voice hadn’t lost the violent edge. “You’re sure?”
I snarled at the implication he thought I would lie about something so sacred to our kind.
“Without a doubt. Fated aren’t something I would ever lie about, and you damn well know it.”
“Shit.”
His hold on my wrists disappeared. I carefully righted myself, wiping away the worst of the blood from my lips and chin with my already ruined shirt. Joshua eased the stake back into the drawer of the desk. And then, without a word, he pressed against both sides of my nose, setting the cartilage before it could heal crooked.
“That makes three since the last time I’ve broken yours,” I said dryly. “You owe me a couple.”
He raised an eyebrow and then flicked the almost-healed bridge of my nose. I hissed in pain.
“You fucked my daughter,” he said, anger still threaded through his voice. His eyes flashed red for a heartbeat. “You’re lucky it’s only a broken nose, jackass.”
True.
A tense silence fell between us, the dynamic a horrid tension I despised. It was Joshua who finally broke it.
“So what are your plans? She’s moving to France in a little over a month for that internship.” He crossed his arms and leaned against the desk, unconcerned with the blood seeping into his pants. “And I will tell you this right now. If you think you’re going to convince her to turn down that opportunity and stay here for you, I will use that stake, Fated with my daughter or not. She’s worked hard to get this chance.”
“Who the hell do you think I am?” Anger lit my veins. He really thought I would make her give up her dreams? It’s not like Ineededmy job. I had investments to last entire lifetimes at this point. The job just kept me busy, monetized at least one of my hobbies. “I’ll follow her wherever she wants to go. If she’ll have me.”