Page 17 of The Highseer's Mate

“Why?”

Emotion chokes my voice as I wait until I know that I can get my words out without making a fool of myself. I’m worried about them, but it’s only because deep down, I’m terrified too. I’m waiting for the moment I’m going to wake up from this nightmare and I don’t want this to happen to anyone else.

I gather myself and answer him. “I don’t want more of your kind to take them like you took me,” my voice shakes. “I want them to be safe.”

The muscles in Varek’s shoulders bunch as his nostrils flare. He looks above my head and barks at Draxel to get out. The other male quickly obeys.

A bead of sweat slides down my spine at the anger in his voice. Varek crowds me, backing me up until I hit the rocky wall.I suck in a deep breath and try to make myself small but he’s right there, towering over me and pinning me to the wall with his body.

“Mate,” he growls. “You want me to consider your request when you offend me?”

“Offend you?” I ask. “How? I just—”

“You think of me as some monster who stole you away. I saved you. Brought you back to my people to heal you. Shelter you. And you believe this to be a grave error?”

The anger slices through his voice as he fumes in front of me. The patterns on his chest flare bright. I shut my eyes from the light but he grips my chin, forcing me to look up at him.

“Answer me.”

“I never wanted this!” The words tumble out of me. “I didn’t choose this. I don’t have the stupid glows or whatever. I’m a human! Things don’t work the same for me. So yeah, this was all a grave error.”

Varek’s jaw clenches, his grip on my chin tightening but still not painful. He shakes his head. “And yet you ask a favor of me? Beg me?”

“Yes,” I breathe. “Please. Don’t put them through what you are putting me through.”

Varek leans in close, his face inches from mine. He’s all around me and I’ve never felt smaller. Less powerful.

“If this is your wish, then I will grant it, mate. But under a condition.”

My heart is pounding in my chest, but I cling to the flare of hope.

“Never,” he growls, “you will never consider me your captor again.”

His lips twitch as he watches me.

“You will never call me as such.”

Varek’s throat bobs as his grip on me loosens, his rough fingers brushing across my cheek. He tenderly touches me from temple to collarbone, his brows knitting with something I haven’t seen in him before.

Not anger. Not confusion.

Pain?

My chest tightens. The luminescence glows as he touches me, a soft green I’m beginning to find enchanting. With him this close, his scent is all I can process. Rain and spice.

Maybe he’s not the monster I want to make him to be. He sure doesn’t seem to want to be called one.

But I think about what he’s really asking. He doesn’t want me to call him my captor, but that’s what he is. I didn’t choose this, he did. I’m here against my will. But his request isn’t just about the technicality of names—captor and captive—Varek wants me to try and accept him. He wants me to open my heart to whatever bond he thinks there is between us.

Can I?

Do I have it in me?

I hesitantly meet his gaze, looking at him through a different lens. He’s… handsome. Not in the traditional, human sense, but there is something beautiful—alluring—about him.

He’s been kind, hasn’t he?

And if this mate bond is as much of an honor as he says, then I won’t be in danger with him, right?

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