Page 58 of The Blood Moon Oath

“Don’t,” she snaps, the fire in her eyes flaring up. “I don’t need your charity,Alpha.”

I stand there, stunned for a moment. Her voice—sharp, biting—sends a chill through me, and I can feel the rush ofemotion through the bond.Anger. That’s what she’s feeling now. That’s what’s coming through loud and clear.

“Is this how it’s going to be?” she spits, her eyes narrowing, glaring at me. “Every time I’m out here trying to have fun, you’re just going to show up and ruin it?”

Her words hit like a slap, and I can’t help the way my chest tightens.Fun?Is that how she’s seeing this? Fun? My grip on my temper slips again.

I take a step forward, my voice low. “It’s not aboutruininganything, Sable. It’s about you acting like a damn fool. You think you’refreeout here with him? You’re not.”

I see her jaw clench, her hands curling into fists at her sides. Then she turns back to Torin, her expression hardening, the frustration still burning in her eyes.

"You jealous prick," he seethes. She turns back to Torin, and asks the one question I didn't want to hear.

“Is that why you wouldn’t fuck me?” she demands of him, the words sharp and cutting. “Because you’re worried about him? Is that why you denied me?”

I freeze, my blood running cold. The air between us shifts, the tension becoming too thick to breathe through. I can feel the anger curling inside of me, mixing with jealousy, with something darker. She’s trying to provoke me.She’s trying to provoke us both.

Torin shrugs, his face unreadable, but I can see the flicker of something in his eyes. “It’s not like that,” he says, his voice low but steady. “I don’t want to mess with the binding, not for your first time. I don’t want to rob you of that.”

The words hit me like a punch in the gut, and for a second, I feel something break inside.Her first time?

My heart thuds heavily in my chest. I didn’t expect this—didn’t expect to feel this way.Jealous.

I glance between them, my breath coming in shortbursts, my mind a swirling mess. For a moment, I don’t know what to say. I don’t know how to process what I’m feeling.

I look at Sable, her eyes full of fire, but beneath that, I see something else—something fragile, something I didn’t expect. And I can’t ignore it. She’s not just angry at me. She’s angry at herself.

I release a breath I didn’t know I was holding.

The jealousy, the rage, they start to fade, replaced with something else—a sense of clarity, maybe. I’ve been losing control, and I know it. My temper, my emotions—no one else has been acting like this, not really.

Well, except for Sable.

She’s pulling at something inside me. Something I didn’t think I could feel anymore.

I take another step toward her, but this time, it’s not out of anger. I look at Torin and nod, accepting what he said. He’s right, of course. She doesn't under the binding, but we do. We can’t rush this, can’t mess with the bond. I won’t rob her of what’s hers to control.

And yet…

I can’t stand the way it feels to lose her. Not like this. I'm not used to losing at things.

“Maybe we need to get to know each other a bit better,” I say, trying to keep the tension in check. “Considering we’re going to be fighting together in the Trials, it might help if we at least know what makes the other tick.”

Torin grins, a wicked gleam in his eyes, and his gaze flicks between us. "Have fun, kitten," he says with a mock salute, and with a fluid motion, he shifts back into his sabertooth form, vanishing into the forest.

Sable calls after him, her voice sharp, “Wait!” But before she can say more, she turns on me, her eyes flashing withthat same fire I’ve seen before. That anger, that challenge. And I can’t help it.

My eyes rake over her naked form, lingering longer than I care to admit. Her skin is flushed from the cold, but it only adds to the raw beauty of her. The way her hair falls around her shoulders, wild and untamed, and the way her body moves, full of strength and defiance—it’s intoxicating. Even when she’s angry, she’s so goddamn beautiful.

“Stop looking at me like that,” she snaps, her voice barely above a whisper but full of warning. I smirk, but there’s no denying the way she affects me and I her. It’s like a magnet pulling at every part of me and I'm just waiting for her side to flip and come crashing into me.

I clear my throat, trying to shake off the intensity of the moment. “What would you like to do, Sable?” I ask, my voice low, controlled.

She stares at me for a moment, that challenge still in her eyes. “Escape,” she mutters, her tone biting.

I can’t help the laugh that escapes me, a low chuckle that rumbles in my chest. “Besides that,” I say, raising an eyebrow, “you know you’re not getting out of here that easily.”

She looks thoughtful for a moment, as if considering something, then shakes her head slightly. “I don’t know,” she admits, the frustration in her voice mixed with a hint of something I can’t quite place. “I don’t know what to do anymore.”

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