Page 96 of The Umbra King

He closed his eyes at her ridiculous assumptions. She still thought so little of him, which made this worse. “AnAeternumis aRoyal’seternal mate.”

She blinked. “Come again?”

His arm threaded through the sleeve of his shirt to shrug it on. “You’re my mate.” He met her wide gaze. “Our souls were made for one another.”

Her silence was worse than yelling, and he finished buttoning his shirt before tucking it into his pants. “Last night when we had sex it, uh…” The next words choked out of him. “It solidified the bond.”

Rocks moved more than she did. The shoes he’d worn were half under the bed, and he was leery to turn his back to her to grab them. “I didn’t want to have sex with you until I explained the repercussions, but I—”

“Trapped me,” she accused, cutting him off. Her stoic expression shifted slightly but gave away nothing.

“No,” he hurried. “No. I wasn’t thinking clearly.” He hesitated. “But yes. I would never force you to marry me, but now that the bond is in place, your soul will need mine, and mine will need yours.”

“What else?” she demanded, her voice holding authority that made his pants tighten uncomfortably.There’s my girl who might kill me,he thought.

“If you are away from me for too long, you will dream of me every time we are asleep at the same time.” He swallowed. “We’ll meet in our soulscape. You can never truly escape me nor I you.”

“What is a soulscape?” she asked, her voice leaning more toward curiosity than anger.

He sighed and sat in a chair. “It’s a place where our souls meet when we’re asleep at the same time. We’ve been in the soulscape before, but we don’t remember. They start when we are both of age.” He rested his elbows on his knees and looked at her. “But now that the bond is solidified, we’ll remember the soulscape vividly as though we met in person.”

“This is what you meant,” she surmised. “When you said we would love each other.” She scrambled from the bed. “Why didn’t you tell me then?”

Nothing scared the Umbra King, but her rejection did. “I didn’t think it was time,” he answered honestly.

She nodded. “You’re right. Telling me after attaching me to you for life was a much better option.” Her eyes promised a painful death.

“It wasn’t supposed to happen this way,” he said through gritted teeth, standing. “And if you remember correctly, you begged me to fuck you.” He was towering over her now. “You are beautiful and sexy, and you were so wet for me, pleading for me to be inside you.” Her chest was heaving as they stood toe to toe. “I lose myself with you, and I lost myself last night.”

“You’re blaming me?” she yelled.

He backed up. “No. Not at all. I blamemyself, but I don’t want you thinking I did this to trap you on purpose.” He crossed the room and opened the door. “If you think I would force you to be with me, then you don’t know me at all. It was a mistake.”

She sucked in a sharp breath, and something akin to hurt crossed her face.

“Not being with you,” he amended. “I would fuck you every hour of the day if I could, and I want nothing more than to fall in love withyou. But I regret forgetting myself.” He stepped through the door and paused. “My contract is up shortly, and I will stay in Erdikoa until yours is too if that’s what you want; and in the soulscape, I will leave you be. This bond does not make you love me, but your soulwasmade to love mine, and it will want to.”

Caius closed the door and took the long hallway to his office in search of Sam. He needed to have a drink with his oldest friend and forget the look on Rory’s face.

Rory gawked at the bookcase.“Fuck that.”

She jogged to the door and jabbed the button. “Caius, you prick, get back here!”

He halted his retreat and turned around. “What can I help you with, Miss Raven?”

“Don’t ‘Miss Raven’ me,” she fumed. “Get back in here and talk to me.”

“What more is there to say?” he asked, and while his words were confident, there was a flicker of something else in his eyes.

“You talkedatme. I deserve to say my piece and have my questions answered. Get back in here.”

He ran a hand through his unkempt hair and trekked back to her room, pushing the button to close the door once they were both inside. “What questions do you have?”

“What did you mean?” she asked, lowering her voice from the shrill yell it had been. “When you said our souls were made for each other, what did you mean?”

He sighed and sat at the small table, gesturing for her to do the same. Once she was sitting in front of him, he leaned back and drummed his fingers on the wood. “Exactly what I said. When aRoyalis born, they are born with an incomplete soul.”

“You only have half a soul?” She huffed out a laugh. “That explains a lot.”

---