Page 240 of On Wings of Blood

I shook my head. “I don’t know what’s real. I don’t know if anything I’m feeling is true. If I believe what you’re saying, then we weren’t bound until you tricked me into taking your blood. So what is this I feel now? Wanting you? It’s all a lie.”

“It’s not a lie,” he insisted.

“I thought you’d changed,” I interrupted, my voice rising. “I thought maybe we could move past everything that happened this year. The way you treated me. The way you spoke to me. But I was wrong.”

“Medra, I...”

‘No,” I said coldly. “I think I liked it better when it was just Pendragon. Because you don’t know me. And I clearly don't know you. You’ve bullied me, tormented me, humiliated me. I know what you did with Visha. She told me.”

He looked taken aback and I felt a surge of satisfaction.

“She told me the truth,” I repeated. “You sent her after me that very first day. You, not Regan. You wanted me to fail. I could have died.”

“She lost herself to bloodlust. I went and got Sankara as fast as I could,” Blake protested. “I didn’t want you to fail. I wanted to test your mettle, that’s all.”

“Sankara. Right. Sankara not you. You could have stepped in at any time if you’d really cared. You could have stopped her, undone what you’d started. But you didn’t. You got a teacher to do it instead. And I’m sure you only did that because, what? You were afraid of getting into trouble?”

“No, because even then, I felt something for you,” he insisted. “I wasn’t supposed to care about you. I never was. But I did. I do. More than you can...”

“I don’t care,” I cut him off, my voice flat. “I don’t care if you cared then. I don’t care if you care now. I don’t care about anyof it.” I shook my head. “I don’t want you. I don’t want this. You think that just because you come from a family, no, an entire culture, of people who manipulate and control one another that you can do that to me with any repercussions? Well, you can’t, Blake. I won't let you.”

His eyes darkened. “What’s done is done.”

I stared at him. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying we’re bound, whether you like it or not. I can’t undo that, even if I wanted to.”

“And you don’t,” I whispered. “Do you?”

He didn’t respond, just took a step towards me.

“We’re mates now. Of the highest order. I can’t feed from anyone else, even if I wanted to. And your body...” His voice softened, but a dark undertone remained. “Your body will respond to my call. Whether you want it to or not.”

My mind reeled. “That’s not true. It can’t...”

“It is true.” Blake cut me off, taking another step closer. “You feel it, don’t you? The pull.”

“No.” My voice was sharp with fear, but a traitorous warmth was spreading through my body, despite my protests.

“I’ll have to show you,” Blake murmured.

I turned on my heel, my only thought escape.

“Stop,” Blake commanded.

I froze. I couldn’t move. Couldn’t walk. My body was betraying me.

Panic ebbed through me. Invisible chains pulled me back towards him.

I gasped. “What are you doing to me?” I choked out. “You’re using thrallweave.”

I slammed up my mental wards, trying to shut him out. But there was nothing there. I couldn’t feel him in my mind.

Yet my body was clearly under his control.

Blake stepped closer. “I'm not,” he whispered, his breath hot against my ear. “This is the bond.”

His eyes were dark and hungry. “I’m sorry it has to be this way.”

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