Page 26 of Shifting Fate

He nodded, once.

A sudden pain struck me through the chest. It felt like a bolt of white-hot energy, electrifying every nerve and making the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. My stomach churned and suddenly, I hot all over.

So he knew? He knew what he was to me all along? Emotion clogged in my throat as I swallowed, then whispered, “Then why couldn’t I smell you?”

Guilt flashed across his face, bringing storm clouds to his eyes. My gut twisted as the realization hit me. His magic. He’d used his magic against me? But why?

My teeth clicked together on a growl. “I don’t understand.”

“Dallon—”

“Don’t ‘Dallon’ me! You’re my mate and you were, what? Just going to hide it from me? Pretend it didn’t exist? You were in myheadand I didn’t even know it?” My voice pitched higher with each frantic sentence.

He didn’t respond.

I threw up my hands. “When? When we first met?” Hehadreached into my head, then. I remembered it, because it’d freaked me the fuck out. Was that why? Was he blocking me from scenting him? Keeping me from realizing who he was to me? I just didn’t understand why.

Arias’s throat worked, but he kept his silence.

Pissed off, I swung my arm back and punched him in the shoulder. “You’re an asshole, you know that? Why the hell did the fates think I’d be able to put up with your sorry ass?”

He went stiff. “What I did was wrong, but I did it to keep you safe.”

“Ha!”

“I mean it, Dallon. Last night was a mistake, and I can’t make that mistake again. This thing can’t go anywhere.”

“What thing?”

He gestured between us, almost frantically. “This! Us! We aren’t compatible—”

I snorted. “Like you’d know that after a single fuck? So basically, what you’re telling me is that you’re my mate, but you want nothing to do with me? Is that right? Because that is fuckingrich.”

He closed his eyes on a sigh, and everything about him seemed to collapse in on itself. He sank down onto the couch and scrubbed both hands over his head, mussing up his shower-damp hair.

“I don’t know what to say. I’m sorry,” he uttered.

“Well, sorry isn’t good enough, Arias.” Shaking my head in disbelief, I turned around and walked out of his life.