Page 46 of Pierce

The worst part was knowing I would do it all again in a heartbeat, even knowing the way things had gone up to that point.

I would risk Gate hating me forever, sowing discord in my family, bringing an outsider to the cave if it meant saving Jasmine. She was all that mattered.

What I couldn’t do—wouldn’t do—was let her go.

It was as though she heard me thinking about her.

She might have, for all I knew.

No sooner had I shut down the thought of letting her leave me than I detected motion at the rear entrance of the caves. Where I had first brought her in.

She couldn’t do anything to hide that red hair of hers. It stood out like a beacon.

I dove, shooting straight down like an arrow. She only felt my presence at the last second, when I was close to reaching the ground. I landed with a crash so hard it shook the trees.

Instead of dashing back inside, she ran for the trees.

You think you can get away from me?I roared in my head, while the roar which came out of my mouth had no words. Nor did it need any.

Birds took flight all around me, beating their wings in their haste to get out of the way of my rage.

I was the dragon, and she didn’t know what happened when the dragon’s passion was fully roused.

I stretched one of my wings out in front of her, blocking the way.

She stopped dead in her tracks, falling on her ass and scrambling back to her feet.

“Please!” she called out to me.

I heard the terror in her voice and liked it.

She was right to be afraid. If she were any being but the mate I had waited my entire life for, I would’ve made short work of her and tossed aside whatever was left for passing animals to feast on.

She looked up. “Please, Pierce! It’s better this way!”

Better? She thinks this is better? Running away from us?

I roared again, or the dragon did. Maybe we both did. It was impossible to separate us now.

I decided to make it easy. Rather than leaving her to have a one-sided conversation, I shifted back to my human form. Soon, we were face-to-face.

“Oh, wait a second.” She held her hands up to her face when she realized I was completely naked.

“I’ve already seen most of you, so don’t worry about seeing me. Aren’t we beyond this point yet?”

She lowered her hands slowly, but I noted the way she didn’t dare allow her eyes to drift lower than my chest. “I didn’t know you would be out here.”

“Obviously. Well done, sneaking out the back like that. Where we would be less likely to spot you. Don’t you know one of us is out here at all times?”

“Yes, I knew that. I thought I could get into the trees before whoever was on duty caught sight of me.”

“Why are you doing this? After everything we talked about—”

The color rose in her cheeks. “Yes. Yet another example of how you don’t listen, Pierce. Just because there’s something between us, you think it erases everything else. Nothing exists except you and what you want. That’s not the real world—at least, it’s not the world I live in.”

“This is what you want. Isn’t it? Don’t deny that we’re what you want, because I feel what’s happening to you. I feel the conflict.”

“There’s more to life than what we want, Pierce. There are sacrifices, too. Isn’t this a sacrifice?” She gestured to the cave. “Living here all these centuries, cut off from the rest of the world. You have a duty. Right? I know that means something to you, or else you wouldn’t be here.”

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