Page 77 of Brutal Birthright

“We keep this between us.”

There was no question in there. Only an instruction. Stars, this diminutive girl, would no doubt command an army with ease if she ever needed to.

“What about Ruby?” He slowly buttoned his shirt. Watching her blink rapidly, and something strained at her features.

In a second, he was in front of her, forcing her chin up with a crooked finger to meet his eyes. “Fuck the bullshit rules, Oriana. Your sister and my prick of a brother broke every rule there was. But I understand you don’t want to hurt her. So, yes, this stays our secret.” For now.

Relief flooded her face. Those lines of tension immediately smoothing out.

“Things are hard enough for me as it is at Astracadia with having the queen as a sister. The last thing I need is for my position in the Astrals to be compromised. I couldn’t bear for all my hard work to be taken away from me.”

Rowan chewed it over, then gave a stiff nod. “Fine.”

He didn’t like it. But if there was anyone who understood how life rarely delivered anything good or kind or easy, it was him.

Right now, he’d gladly take complicated and messy if it meant keeping her.

The dragon hoarding his gold even when threatened with those who might slay him for it.

“Oh, and let me be very clear about this one thing, brute…” She squared her shoulders and stabbed him in the chest with a forefinger. “I don’t share what’s mine either.”

Chapter 24

Ri was certain her head might explode.

At the very least, her brain had probably melted and leaked out of her ears.

What the fuck was she supposed to do now? Knowing for certain that Rowan of Nocturne was her fated mate.

Rowan.

Of all the beings across all the realms and myriad of lifetimes.

It had to be him?

The grumpiest, most demanding man she’d ever encountered. Who made her knees weak and her pulse race like a stallion whenever he so much as arched an eyebrow in her direction.

Yep. She was undeniably fucked. What in the Goddesses names was she supposed to do with that information?

Certainly not tell him. Of that, she was in full surety.

The man already had one foot out the door, ready to disappear to who knows what impossibly difficult-to-reach realm at the first sign of anything that looked or sounded like emotions.

Sex? Driving her wild? Possessiveness is the heat of the moment? Feeling the intense pull of an attraction to her?

Oh yes. He had all those things more than under his complete control. Rowan ruled that area of his immortal life like a king. Not once blinking at the dramatic change in circumstances between them.

But this was something she knew had no place in his vocabulary… fate and love were concepts Rowan of Nocturne sneered at. Added to the fact that as a witch, he had a choice in who, if anyone, he might bind himself to. Well, that realisation left Ri in a scramble to hold on to something as her entire world felt like it collapsed around her with a deafening roar.

With a single kiss between them, everything had unravelled in the most incredibly intense and intimate way. She inwardly cursed the fact her fae blood left her no say in the matter. Ri didn’t want to be tethered to another in an arrangement that was forced or predetermined by the Goddesses. Not when Rowan was the kind of man more likely to cut off his own arm than commit to an eternity bound to another by force.

Fuck, she’d rather chew off her own foot than have that either.

It was ridiculous. Idiotic. Unbelievable that beings with such unpredictably long lifespans might be threaded together at a soul level. What was she supposed to do now?

Lying to him last night about the kiss had been the only way to survive everything that singular moment revealed.

Was she proud of it? No.

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