Page 140 of The Slave in A Princess Disguise

He remembered the morning Wegai handed him that message, but still, a part of him had needed to hear it from her.Even after summoning Herod for questioning, he still had not felt settled. Now, though, some of that uneasiness slipped away.

Appeasing your jealousy when there were far more serious issues to discuss, Daemonikai.

“He never touched me that way,” Emeriel reiterated.

“We spent three nights together.” He palmed his forehead, rubbing the dull throb. “Three days, and you never thought to tell me the truth? ‘I live under two identities, Emeriel is a girl and she is me, and I am yourSoulbond, it’s your right to know, so you can decide if this bond should grow further’” He whipped his hand away, eyes hard. “You never thought to tell me any of that?”

She whimpered, tears flooding her red-rimmed eyes.

But Daemonikai was far too angry to stop. “My reputation precedes me, Galilea. Surely one or two persons aware of your deception warned you that Idespiselies.”

“I’m sorry, I was scared. I did not know how to tell you. I—”

"Sorry does not change the fact that YOU DECEIVED ME!" he bellowed, the rage he'd held on a tight leash for days spilling over. “I hate that you deceived me. I have executed people for less!”

She flinched, hugging herself protectively.

“We fed that bond!” He barked thunderously. “Every time we got together! Everywalk, everybreathof your scent, every time we had sex, every knotting,We. Fed. That. Bond.”

The floodgate of tears spilled over, bathing her red cheeks.

“It grew stronger, andstronger, what were you thinking!?” His fists clenched at his sides as he paced the room. “If I had known who you were, we would havenevergotten together. I would have avoided thisby all means. I would damn wellneverhave touched you during your heat.”

Emeriel recoiled as if he had slapped her.

But all Daemonikai saw was the reality of their situation. It crashed into him like an avalanche.

He would have to mate again. The wide hole in his heart where his family used to be still gaped open, growing wider with every passing day. And now, he would have to do it all over again?

Despair turned his stomach. "Icannotdo this." The very idea of risking his heart once again sickened him. "I willnotdo this.”

One would think that after hurting so much, for so long, over the same reason, Emeriel would have developed some kind of immunity to this pain in particular. But one would be wrong.

Nothing could have prepared Emeriel for the depth of the agony that came with her beloved's words, no matter how much she had expected them.

She had expected his rejection, expected him to push her away. But what she had not expected was the sheer passion behind every syllable. The raw, abject sincerity, the coiled rage, as he told her, in no uncertain terms, that he did not want her.

Emerielshattered.

The words sliced her to pieces, cutting deeper than she thought words ever could. She had prepared herself for this moment, or at least she thought she had. But seeing the conviction, the determination, watching the flickers of yellow come and go in his eyes as his beast hovered just beneath the surface, mad as hell just like the man himself—it was too much.Stop. Please stop.

His restless feet came to a stop and he faced her once more. “I losteverything,Galilea. Everything that ever mattered to me is gone. For millennia, my family were my light, they were everything I knew, and I lost them. They took my life, my heart and soul.”

To be loved like this, what would it feel like? Emeriel would never know.

She grabbed at her chest, trying to physically hold herself together. As if clutching her heart could somehow soothe the river of pain flowing from it. It did not help. Nothing could.

The ache was too great, it was simply too much. And it wasn’t just hers—it washis.

From the moment Emeriel rose from sleep, she had felt his anguish. Even when he tried to be calm, when he battled to keep it contained, she had felt every misery, every anger and sorrow he carried. Speaking of his family, had her nearly suffocating, as though she, too, were being buried under it. Crushing and merciless, until Emeriel could no longer tell where his pain ended and hers began.

Please, stop, I beg of you.

“All that is left is this... thisrage.Bitterness. All that is left is this need to destroy, and gods, do I wish to massacre every single human andBathe. In. Their. Blood.” His eyes turned bloodshot as he began to pace again. “I will not take a mate, and Icertainlywill not take ahumanmate. I will kill us both before I let that happen. Put me out of my misery and send you back to whatever creator thought it would be fun to do this! Be it Ukrae, the Fates, or the damn Moon Goddess!”

"Daemon—" Emeriel took a step closer.My heart. Heavens, my heart...

"Do not come near me!" he barked, his deadly glare stopping her in her tracks. "I am NOT feeding that bond any more than it’s already been fed. Stay the hell away from me!”

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