Page 76 of Elven Prince

Rebecca couldn’t tell anymore what he wanted. It was all getting so jumbled in her head, in her body, the line between his thoughts, emotions, desires and her own growing thinner by the second. If it hadn’t already disappeared completely.

For fuck’s sake, this felt like trying to get rid of Rowan every chance he took to rattle her cage and change her mind about coming home with him.

What the hell made Maxwell think her response tohimwould be any different?

And what exactly did he think he was going to whittle out of her, anyway? Especially likethis?

Now she couldn’t even tell whatshefelt anymore—what was hers, what was Maxwell’s, what only existed because of this damn thing between them. The un-severable cord. The third presence growing stronger every time they were alone.

Rebecca was furious that she had to deal with all of it at the same time. There was fear there too, riding the guilt of what she still blamed herself for not being able to accomplish—not being able to figure out the danger in time before dozens, maybe even hundreds, of magical civilians in Chicago were slaughtered simply for having anything to do with her task force.

And then, beneath all of it, rode a furious, constantly morphing wave of suspicion like she hadn’t felt in decades.

She didn’t know who to trust anymore, or where to turn for accurate opinions and advice, for the truth that wasn’t wrapped up in ulterior motives and secret alliances and the threat of making the wrong choice that might devastate not only her place in this world but her place in Shade. Devastate all of Shade itself.

That she didn’t have anyone, not really, and she had already called her own council far more times in the last several weeks than she had originally planned when she’d first pulled that council together.

And still, there was Maxwell, always just behind her, practically chasing her up the stairs like a predator chasing prey.

She couldn’t get to her office fast enough.

“Roth-Da’al!” he called as she reached her office door.

Something in his voice had changed, but she was too overwhelmed now to pinpoint what it was.

“I understand exactly what’s at stake and exactly what we don’t have time for, given our present circumstances,” he said.

Rebecca reached out in front of her. Her fingers closed around the cool brass doorknob waiting to turn and open at her command.

“But I need you to look me in the eye and tell me what’s going on with Blackmoon,” Maxwell pressed. “I need to know everything you know about—”

“Rowan Blackmoon is out of the picture,” Rebecca spat, unable to stop from turning back to face him, though her fingers still gripped the doorknob like it was her last and only lifeline. “That’s all there is. Nothing’s going on. He joined up, he became one of us, he fucked around with the entire system and everything Shade’s trying to accomplish, and then he threw in the towel when his master plan stopped working and the situation no longer suited him. He’s gone! There’s nothing else to talkabout!”

The force of her erupting outburst startled even her as it echoed back toward her in the hallway. Then it seemed she’d lost the ability to move it all.

Her heart thundered in her chest, the heat blazing through her at an unbearable intensity.

And beneath it all, she felt Maxwell stopped in the hallway, standing there behind her as she stood in front of her office door, maybe even as frozen in his surprise and helplessness as she was now.

Fuck this. Fuck their connection. Fuck the guilt overwhelming her from her inability to put all her suspicions aside and have a real conversation with the shifter hovering behind her, mere inches away.

She shouldn’t have to explain herself to anyone, not even Maxwell Hannigan.

He wouldn’t believe a single word of the truth, anyway. It was all too impossible.

And even if hedidbelieve her, he would only judge her for it, just like everyone else who knew the truth.

Everyone else she’d left behind forever…

She couldn’t trust him. Not the way she wanted to. The shifter was marked by the Bloodshadow Court in one way or another. No denying it. No misunderstanding there.

Until Rebecca figured out what the hell that rune meant, who put it there, what it represented, and what it revealed about Maxwell’s true allegiances, she couldn’t do any of this.

Ripping herself away from him in that moment—forcing herself to twist the doorknob and open her office door—was more agonizing, more physically debilitating than any other moment of separation from him.

Rebecca wasn’t a stranger to pain or to pushing herself through it.

The act brought stinging tears to her eyes while all the breath squeezed from her lungs. Her head swam with the sudden onset of a pounding ache that dug in behind her eyes and shot all the way down into her core.

---