Page 70 of Cursed by Death

I frowned at him. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?’

He threw up his hands in exasperation. “You want to fuck other people, Ruby. You’re my mate and I have to be okay withsharing you. It’s just what you expect of me, I know it is, and you never even asked me if it was okay with me. Do you really not care about anyone but yourself? Or is it just me you don’t give a fuck about?”

Another ouch delivered. This time I almost flinched. “You’re an asshole. A serious asshole. I’m not going to apologize for being attracted to the Detective or having some kind of unexplainable connection to him. I didn’t ask to be your mate. I never asked for any of this and I’m certainly not about to tell you who you can and can’t have relations with. That’s your business.”

Okay, so I might not say anything to him if I found out he was with another woman but I would absolutely hate everything about it. Hypocritical, I know.

He leaned down into me and put his face right in mine. His eyes had bled to his wolf's eyes and they were shining bright in the dark room.

“Everything you do is my goddamn business,” he whispered harshly. “And, this is the last fucking time I’m going to tell you this, so I’m going to need you to actually pay attention andhearwhat it is that I’m saying to you. You. Are. My.Mate.For me, it’s only ever going to be you. I get that we are different and you’re not a shifter so you’re not going to be connected to me the same way that I am to you. I get it. I even understand it. But that doesn’t mean that I have to like it or that I’m going to be happy about it. Neither of us can change that you’re my mate and I wouldn’t change it even if I could. The sooner you come to terms with that the better off we’ll both be.”

I swallowed thickly as I stared into his bright, shining wolf eyes. “I don’t ever want to feel like I belong to another person besides myself,” I whispered. “I belong to myself. I can’t get lost that way and it’s the only safe bet for me.”

“Baby. I don’t want you to belong to me. All I want is for you to let me love you.”

Chapter 36

My breath caught in my throat as I stared into his mesmerizing eyes.

No one had ever loved me before. I wasn’t even sure if I was deserving of someone else’s love because I didn’t know if I’d be able to return it.

I was probably going to hurt Rally. If I hadn’t already. And if what he'd said earlier was any indication I had likely already managed to hurt him multiple times.

“Rally,” I murmured quietly. The urge to apologize to him was strong but I refrained. The best apologies were changed behavior, but I didn’t think I would be able to give him that. “I’m sorry that you got stuck with a mess like me as your mate.”

The growl that came from his throat was more animal than it was human. Instead of being scared of it I could feel myself start to get wet.

Certainly not a normal reaction to have but then again, I had never been a normal sort of girl before.

“I don’t want to hear anything like that ever come out of your mouth again,” he growled in a dark, sinister voice. “You’re everything I could have ever asked for in a mate and so much more. But you’ve got to start acting like you’re mated to agoddamn Prince. And that means you can’t go running off whenever you feel like it, especially not without telling anyone. And you should never, ever go into the underground without me or one of my guards with you. And, for fucks sake, don’t go running off alone with the hunters. You’re smarter than all of that and you need to start acting like it.”

That wiped the warm and fuzzy feelings right out of me. I put my hands on his chest and shoved. He barely moved back an inch. Just what the hell was he made of?

“You don’t get to tell me what to do, Rally. And you certainly aren’t going to tell me who I can and cannot hang out with like I’m some kind of naughty teenager. I’m going to do whatever the fuck I want. And, another thing, I don’t need a guard. I can take care of my own damn self.”

His face had morphed into something scary when I pushed him and it only grew darker and harder with every word that had come out of my mouth.

I didn’t care though. I was tired of people, men in particular, trying to control and dictate my life by telling me what I could and could not do.

“You’re a fucking brat,” he growled in my face. “A spoiled rotten, rich little bitch.”

I gasped in outrage. “You take that back right this second. I may be a rich bitchnowbut I’ve never been a spoiled rotten brat. You don’t fucking know anything about me and if you did know me, even in the slightest, those words would have never come out of your stupid mouth. Not ever.” I shoved at his chest and snapped, “Take it back.”

He got right in my face, so close that we were now sharing breath. “You’re so selfish sometimes and up your own ass that it’s a wonder that you can see straight. But don’t you worry, baby, I’m going to sort you so I’m not constantly having to deal with this bullshit.”

Selfish? No one had ever called me selfish before. I didn’t like the way it was making me feel now. If I wasn’t careful here he might actually hurt my feelings.

It made me uncomfortable knowing he now had the ability to hurt my feelings. It meant that I actually cared about him and I cared about what he thought of me.

And wasn’t that just a dangerous road to go down. Dangerous and unwanted.

I had to get rid of him before he made me do something I’d regret later, like cry or something. I’d never forgive myself if I cried in front of Rally right now.

I stood up quickly, catching him off guard and making him stumble back. I walked right past him towards the door and flung it open. Before I could turn back towards him the door was slammed shut and I was shoved up against it with my chest pressed up to it.

“That was the wrong thing to do,” he whispered in a deceptively soft voice and I shivered upon hearing it. “I’m tired of this game that you’ve been playing and forcing me to participate in. It ends now.”

That didn’t sound very good.

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