Page 17

Bianca POV

The rain had cleared not long ago, but the air was still damp, and the cold autumn air pressed around me.

The small shelter I’d found—a hideaway at the base of a large oak—hadn’t done much to protect me from the elements.

I was soaked, shoeless, and shivering but didn’t dare return.

There was only one thought replaying repeatedly in my head: They knew.

I was so ashamed I wanted to die.

My first hint was the stillness of the atmosphere, and then the night turned quiet. The heat rose across my chest as I pulled my face from my knees, already knowing what I’d see.

There was no way to avoid him forever.

As I expected, Titus sat on his ankles a short distance away. He was close enough to reach me but was not quite intruding in my space yet.

He’d been watching me and didn’t look away when our gazes met. Instead, he tilted his head in a motion that spoke of contemplation, like a wild creature weighing its trust in the presence of something unknown.

“Y-you’re stalking me again,” I pointed out. My voice shook, but I wasn’t afraid.

I’d almost expected that he’d be the one to come after me. Especially after what Damen had suggested that they’d found in evidence. Titus surely knew by now.

Was that why, this time, there was something different in his demeanor?

“I’m not stalking you,” Titus replied, his expression unchanged. “And I’m not hunting you either, but you already know that.”

My breath hitched. I hadn’t accused him of anything of the sort—this time. However, when we’d first met, I’d been afraid for that reason.

Did he remember?

“How did you find me?” I asked. “I—I don’t want to go back.”

He tapped his nose, and his mouth thinned. “And I didn’t come here to bring you back against your will. I’m only here to observe.”

I blinked at him. “What are you observing?”

“What a difference intent can make,” Titus said. “I messed up when we first met.”

I was too tired for this. “What do you mean?”

“I’m a shifter,” he pointed out. “I knew you were scared, but you didn’t let it stop you from challenging me. Because of that, I thought it was okay to play.”

My skin prickled. “What?”

“I’m a predator, and you’re prey,” Titus said, and his eyes gleamed. His voice lowered as he looked at the ground. “I didn’t consider that. It was Miles who reminded me that I could have, from the start, changed how I was perceived. ”

I moved to my knees and faced him. “What’s wrong? I told you I’m not scared of you anymore.”

“But,” he said, his expression turning sharp. “You did say you were afraid of being eaten. I knew that hunts existed. I should have made the connection.”

My hands began to shake.

Damen was right. They did know everything.

“I—I didn’t realize what they were until recently,” I told him. When he raised an eyebrow, I added, “It was when Matheus sh-shifted that I realized. No one ever changed in front of me. They chased me as wolves, and”—I looked away—“they were human when they finally caught me.”

My teeth were chattering, and a comforting warmth covered me as Titus wrapped his arms around my shoulders. “It won’t happen again,” he said.

He had no idea what was out there or what they could do. “Are you planning to hide me in one of your secret treasure caves where no one can find me?”

Titus’s chest rumbled beneath my cheek. “It depends on which one.”

He did have a cave! I tried to look at him, but he held me firmly against him. “Titus!”

“My specialty is defense and war. I have bases and connections across the world,” Titus said, sounding somewhat amused.

“Not even the others know the full extent. But no, I’m not going to take you anywhere unless it’s necessary.

That’s no kind of life. There’s no reason to think you’d be any less safe here with all of us. ”

He didn’t sound worried, but if what Damen and Julian had told me was true, shouldn’t he be?

I pushed at his chest until I was sitting back in his lap and looked into his face. “I know about the prophecy,” I told him .

Titus’s heart thudded under my hands, and his jaw locked. But when he spoke, his voice was the same as ever. “Is that so?”

“It can’t be true, can it?” I asked.

Titus responded, brows lowered and wariness lacing his tone. “Damen hasn’t confirmed it, so in my opinion, it’s not valid.”

I let out a laugh. “Of course not, there’s no way—”

“But you are my mate,” Titus said.

“You’re wrong!” I protested as my throat closed over. I looked past him, breathing heavily, as my mind raced.

Titus wrapped an arm around my shoulder as he moved his other hand to my chin, forcing my eyes to meet his.

“What are you saying?” he asked. His light eyes had transformed into a dark sage, the irises a shade away from being swallowed in black. The expression on his face was heartbreaking. “Are you rejecting—”

“No!” I interrupted and pressed my fingers against his lips. My breath came out in a rush. The last thing I wanted was to hurt him.

“I’m not rejecting you.” I glanced away, trying not to let the warm brush of his breath across my knuckles fluster me. “That’s not it. What you’re saying… the mate stuff. It can’t be me. It’s just not possible.”

He was silent a moment before touching my cheek. The grief had faded from his expression, and I knew by the searching tilt of his head that there was no way to avoid the inevitable question.

And sure enough, after a second, there it was. “Why do you think that?”

I couldn’t lie; this was his future. He deserved to know.

“The prophecy says you’ll have children,” I whispered, forcing myself to stay present, if only for a little longer. “I can’t do that.”

I’d always wanted a family. I dreamed about it my whole life. It was the same dream that Damen had told me not long ago, but in my dream, I would adopt.

Biological children weren’t in my future.

Titus didn’t react much to my admission—he only raised his eyebrows.

Did he not understand? “Titus…”

“I don’t care,” he said, his expression calculating. “I only care about how I feel. It’s you. It’s always been you. For it to have been you born into this form leaves no question. You’re my mate.”

A weight pressed against my chest, making it hard to breathe. “But the prophecy,” I began to protest, but I wasn’t quite sure what to say.

“I told you I don’t believe in that nonsense,” Titus said, rubbing his thumb over my cheek. “All I care about is you. If you don’t want—”

“No, I do want children!” I cut him off. I didn’t want him to get the wrong idea. “But I’m pretty sure I can’t have them.”

He needed to understand this, although it was beyond horrifying that we were discussing this topic at all. Because, well, in order to have children, you’d need to have sex, and, well…

“What does that mean?” Titus frowned.

My face was on fire, and I gripped his shirt, twisting the fabric as I moved my focus there. This was going down such an embarrassing route.

“Stuff happened,” I whispered. “And there were concerns. I’ve never been… normal. So, it’s pretty obvious that… see?”

“What concerns?” he asked as my admission seemed to confound him further, and his frown deepened. “What did Trinity say?”

I swallowed—my mouth was so dry.

“Ah,” I looked away. “Dr. Reed didn’t… I—I never told her. And— ”

Oh, this was such a bad, bad idea. But nobody could make me do anything anymore, so it didn’t matter.

“—Well, I might have misled her when she asked me questions. So she doesn’t exactly know.”

He was frowning at me.

“I’m sorry,” I added sheepishly.

“Don’t lie about your health,” Titus said, his gaze narrowing. “Not anymore.”

My throat closed. “But they would make me do a physical!” I told him. “I won’t do it!”

Titus lowered his forehead to mine, breaking through my panic. “They won’t,” he said, sounding so sure. “Nobody will make you do anything you don’t want. Bryce won’t let them. And if he fails, then I’ll stop them and rip his head off.”

But I didn’t want Bryce’s head to be ripped off! He needed to teach me how to defeat poison. Then maybe we could bond as siblings or something.

“Okay,” I sighed. I’d rather him not threaten my fake husband for now. Distantly, my mind kept returning to this conversation’s central point. “How does this mate thing work, anyway? Are you going to bite me?”

“What?” Titus blinked.

“I’d rather not be maimed unless it’s a last resort,” I told him. I tried to recall my shifter romance stories. “How does marking, or claiming, or whatever work?”

“You’ve got the wrong species.” Titus’s expression cleared, and there was a hint of a smile on his lips as he leaned toward me. He was falling back into his seductive mode. “It’s not like that for shifters. Do you want me to show you?”

“No,” I said, pressing my hand against his face. I would not enter into a lifetime commitment in the middle of a fen while wearing a hospital gown. Titus was supposed to be brilliant. He could figure it out.

I had high expectations.

“Not right now,” I added. But then another thought occurred to me.

“Um—” The guilt made my stomach turn. “—can I ask you a question?”

He blinked at me, not moving away from my hand.

“Julian told me something once, and I’m not sure I understand,” I said. “I think he was saying that everyone, and me… in the past. How does that work? Especially with the mate thing.”

There was a wetness in the center of my palm, and I pulled my hand away back, looking at it in disgust. “Did you just lick me? That’s gross.”

“You’ve been with all of us romantically, except, as I understand it, Huo—which would be Damen,” Titus said, furrowing his brow. “But I also could be wrong. I’ve never cared what you get up to with the others, but I also don’t want to know about it.”

What was that face? Did he care or not?

“It wouldn’t work if you had to choose,” he continued. “We need each other, and we need you. And your heart has always been big enough for everyone. You were the one who brought emotions into our lives.”

My heart pounded—what did he mean? “Titus?”