Page 136 of The King has Fallen

Something in him tightened, and his face went harder if that was possible.

But he leaned down and cupped my face with one hand. When he spoke, his voice was a soft growl.

“I knowexactlywhat type oftalkI would expect to have if I had been separated from my bond-vowed and we had both been in danger.” His fingers curled in, his nails just a hairsbreadth from hurting on my cheek.

I gripped his wrist. “That isnotthe kind of conversation I will be having with him,” I said bluntly.

“You told me you had no mate.”

“And I didn’t, until you,” I said earnestly. “We are—wewerebond-vowed. Intended. Betrothed. Whatever you want to call it.”

“And you didn’t think that was worth mentioning?”

“Not when I’d already decided not to take him,” I said honestly.

He grunted, his eyes shadowed, but I saw the barest hint of hope in his gaze. “Are you lying to me, Yilan? Making me a fool?”

I wanted to weep, and shook my head. Stepping closer to him. “No. And I never would. Melek, our bond is real and true and…precious.”

“And yet, you were promised to someone else.”

“I am almost thirty. I amyearspast the age of taking a mate in our culture. It was… I thought I’d never find you.”

He just stared at me, but his thumb stroked up and down on my cheek.

I gripped his wrist tighter and the front of his shirt with my other hand. “Melek, there is nothing in this world that I want less than to belittle you. Can’t you see that?” I breathed.

He was so tense, the flat plane of his chest feeling like warm steel under my hand.

He stared deep into my eyes, and a low rumble began in that chest. I leaned in harder.

“Please, Melek. I’m not—”

“I have to find Gall today. I have to take him with me when I go to the front.”

I blinked at the sudden shift in subject. But he didn’t move away from me, so neither did I.

“Why? You said—”

“He is trained to fight, and I fear when I leave—and Ihaveto leave tomorrow, Yilan—that someone may try to use him against me.”

My headspunwith the arguments, points, and sheerfactsthat he resisted when he spoke about his King. But as I tried to figure out which to raise first, I hesitated.

He looked so pained. So afraid—but always for me, or for Gall. Even for Jann. His fear was never spent on himself.

It was half the reason I loved him.

With a heavy sigh, I reached up to take his face and draw him down to me. He resisted for a moment.

“Melek,please,”I whispered. “We only have hours. Please… believe me. We will both leave tomorrow. But I’m not going until you do.”

“I think I believe that you want no one but me,” he muttered sullenly. “My question remains of what he’ll expect when you are… reunited.”

I shook my head. “You know I’d never taken him before. And I won’t. His expectations, if he has any, won’t matter. Because I’ll tell him that I’m mated. I have no qualms over telling anyonethat, Melek—when we’re both safe. I waited to keep everyone, all of us,safe.”

He was searching my eyes as I spoke, but on that last word, he groaned and dropped his head to kiss me, wrapping his arms around me.

He was trembling.

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