Page 87 of Unveil

I stare at him, unable to process what he’s saying.

“You’ve never had… you’ve never been with anyone?”

He shakes his head. “The only woman I’ll ever be with is my wife.You.That’s why I wanted to do this right between us, the best I knew how with the little control I had.” His lips twitch into a small, helpless smile. “With you, all my discipline cracks. I become as reckless as you are.”

I shake my head. “But why? You didn’t even know me.”

“Didn’t matter. If you tell me something’s mine, I guard it with my life. That happened the moment King told me I was marrying you. But since then, watching you—getting to knowyou, Luna Bordeaux—has only proven you’re worth the wait.”

His gaze pins me in place, but a floating sensation still flows in my limbs. “You’re my fiancée. My future wife. And if something belongs toyou, I’ll guard that just as fiercely.” He leans closer, his voice a caress on my cheek. “I am yours to claim, just as you are mine.”

I shiver, caught between the dwindling anger I’m clinging to and the primal possessiveness flooding through my veins and rushing to my core.

“Which means you’re stuck with me,” he adds in a lethal tone. “For life. I’ve tried waiting for you to understand the danger you’re in, the danger our families are in, but we’re running out of time. I won’t let you run from me again, and I’ll let you hate me if it saves you, so get fucking used to it, bride.”

My thoughts splinter. He watches dispassionately, face blank, as he breaks my heart, clipping my wings. Hurt and anger heat my skin, and I hold onto the latter like a lifeline.

“Fine then. Have it your way, and hear me loud and clear.” I swallow before putting all the venom I can into how I wish I felt. “Ihateyou, Orion Fury.”

Only the slight jump of a muscle in his jaw tells me the words affected him at all.

“Good,” he finally says, barely a trace of sadness in the word. “I see I’ve finally hit my mark.”

And then he moves on, pointing at the trees.

“There,” he says, less harshly this time. “That white steeple is Whitby Rose. There’s a dirt road nearby. Now that I know where we are, I can get us out.”

Even though the next-to-last place I want to be is at his side, the very last place I want to be is alone with my thoughts. I scare myself more than Orion, or the truth, does.

“I’ll come with you,” I mutter.

“No. I’m taking you back first.”

The finality in his tone makes me flinch. “What?”

He shakes his head. “I can’t have you be a liability.”

“I’m not a liability. I’ve kept up with you just fine, and it’s only misting now. The storm’s gone.”

“This time of year, storms come and go on a whim,” he replies. “And the drenched ground will be one hundred times worse in the dark. The dirt road from the church to the main road is at least seven miles, and I don’t even know how far my car is past that.”

Then he steps closer, his voice softening back to the Orion I know. The deceptive kindness almost coaxes my shredded emotions into thinking we’re safe again, but he’s already battered my heart bloody.

“You need to sleep. Something’s up. I haven’t pushed, and I’ve tried to respect your space. But last night?” He rakes his hand through his hair. “Fuck, it scared me, baby. You seem less keyed up today, so best I can figure is that sleep must’ve helped.But you're still nowhere near as exhausted as you should be. AsIam, if I’m honest. I need to take you back and do what’s best for you. I can find you when I get the car.”

Tears prick at my eyes, and humiliation crawls hotly up my neck. What’s worse is he’s right. I do need sleep. If I don’t get it, I won’t be able to hide what’s going on anymore, and I’m not ready for that conversation. Not yet. Not until I get a handle on it. Not until I know he’ll still see me asmewhen it’s over. If he finds out, I want it to be when my head’s on straight, not when I’m losing it.

I tip my chin to the sky, blinking fast to keep the tears from falling so this jerk can’t see me cry. A flicker of movement in the trees pulls my gaze to the swath of paint slashed across the bark. The hair on the back of my neck rises.

“Orion… what does pink paint mean?”

He stills. “Pink?”

I nod, pointing at a trunk across the graveyard. “Red is neutral, black is Fury…” The red mark ahead has been sloppily painted over with white.

Pink.

“Those motherfuckers.” Orion’s jaw clenches as he takes my hand, fisting his machete with the other. “They’re trying to claim what isn’t theirs.”