Page 46 of Heart of the Rebel Mate

"She isn't yours," he says. "She doesn't belong to me, either. But you're fooling yourself if you think she'll ever let you dictate where she stands."

I don't answer.

Because I know he's right.

Elara has never been someone to be owned, to be controlled. That's one of the things I?—

I close my eyes briefly, shaking the thought away before it can fully form.

Cassian watches me carefully, like he knows exactly what's happening in my head. "You hate this, don't you?" he muses. "The fact that you can't stop her. The fact that she doesn't need you as much as you need her."

My breath comes a little sharper.

I could hit him.

It would be easy. A single step forward, a fist to his jaw, the satisfying crack of bone against bone.

I want to.

But that would mean he's won.

I take a slow breath, keeping my hands at my sides. "This isn't about me."

He smirks. "Isn't it?"

Something inside me snaps.

Before I know it, my hand is on his collar, gripping tight, yanking him forward. He doesn't flinch. He doesn't even try to pull away.

Instead, he just stares at me with that same maddening calm, like he's been waiting for me to break.

The torches flicker around us, casting jagged shadows across his face.

"You have no idea what's coming," I say, my voice like a growl. "You think you're ready for this fight, but you don't understand the cost."

Cassian's gaze darkens. "And you do?"

"I know what happens to people who think they can take on the Council alone." My grip tightens on his collar. "They die."

He doesn't blink. "Then maybe that's the price we have to pay."

I shake my head. "You don't get to make that decision for her."

"And you do?"

We're at an impasse, two forces colliding with no room to bend.

Then, from down the corridor—footsteps.

A familiar presence, the shift in the air before she even comes into view.

Elara.

Her dark silhouette appears at the end of the hall, her gaze flicking between us. She's cautious, her posture stiff, as if she already knows what she's walked in on.

I let go of Cassian, stepping back.

His smirk returns, faint but infuriating.

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