Page 21 of Blood Moon Heat

“Why am I in your bedroom?” She scanned the room, taking in everything, but her gaze kept darting back to the bed.

“Because this is where you will be sleeping tonight.”

“No.”

I bit back another snarl. “You wanted out of your bedroom, so this is where you will sleep instead.”

“I told you that as long as you treat me like your prisoner, you don’t get to be close to me in that way.”

“I allowed you to leave your room. We dined together—”

“You think that’s enough for me to let you…touch me? To do whatever it is you want to do to me?”

My control slipped. I hooked her around the side of the throat and pulled her to me and pressed my forehead to her temple, breathing her in. “Even now, I can smell how wet your cunt is, Lalka. All this denial, refusing me this way, is a waste of time. I know what you want, and you will give it to me.”

She shoved at me, taking me off guard, and I stumbled back a step.

“Letting me leave my prison for a few hours, having a meal with me, that isn’t freedom, Nero. This is just you trying to get your way without giving me anything at all. You know what I want, and this isn’t it.” She took a step back. “Take me back to my room. I’d rather be there alone than in here with you.”

The roar erupted from me before I knew it was coming. “You will not deny me. Not anymore.” I was having trouble naming the emotion battering me. My bones were molten beneath my flesh, burning under my skin. I wanted to tear at it, flay it from my body. I wanted to keep on roaring to release this jagged bolder in my chest as I dropped to the floor at her feet, curl my fingers around her legs and demand…beg her to let me have her. I told her I didn’t want anything more from her, and I’d meant it, because I would break her if I took more, but right then, logic had left me.

I’d never wanted anyone the way I wanted Mina. No one denied me. Everyone I’d ever wanted, wanted me even more. That’s what power got you. But this….this little female refused me over and over again. I’d been the one to decide not to mate her, and now it was all I could think about.

Mina had fucking broken me. She’d stripped me bare.

I felt like a fucking fool, something only my bride had ever accomplished, and that sent my rage higher. I stalked forward, and she backed up, hitting the wall. Curling my fingers around her slender throat, I leaned in. “You want me. Give in.”

“Never,” she bit out.

Her pulse fluttered wildly under my fingers, and the scent of her pussy intensified. “Give in to the hunger you’re feeling. Are your juices coating your thighs, Lalka? I bet they are.”

Her face flushed bright red. “You disgust me.”

What was happening? Where was my control? My hands clenched and my vision blurred as everything inside me twisted into rage. I spun to the wall beside her and put my fist through it with another roar. When I turned back to Mina, her eyes were wide, her chest heaving.

I fucking hated that look in her eyes as well. Turning, I quickly stormed out of the room, locking her in, before I tore it down around us.

Somehow, I had to find a way to tame all the volatile emotions clashing inside me before I lost control completely.

Mina

I woke when the bedroom door opened and closed.

Somehow, I’d fallen asleep lying on his bed.

I’d fought it, but as the hours passed, exhaustion had won out.

Nero had returned.

My heart immediately sped up, and the blood in my veins and the flesh between my thighs heated, tingling in a way that was pleasurable. My body betrayed me every single time. But I would fight it for as long as I had to.

Gods, I felt his eyes burning into me from across the room. I wanted to tell him to leave, but this was his room not mine. Not that he would care how his presence made me feel. I hated that being this close to him made me feel almost as feral as he’d behaved before he’d walked out of this room several hours ago.

No, my bonded wouldn’t care about my emotions, because he was utterly devoid of empathy.

A rustling sound came next. Was that the clink of his belt buckle?

I tried to keep my breathing even. Was he undressing?

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