Page 102 of Phoenix Falling
Anger bloomed in my chest. “Don’t! Don’t call me that.” I stopped in the doorway. “I don’t even know if it’s true or not, but that’s beside the point. You lost the right to call me ‘mate’ when you left me with blood dripping out of my eyes and had me locked in a cell.”
Sun halted in the middle of the kitchenette. “I call you what you are.”
“So we’re really going to ignore the physical costs of you losing control, are we?” I gripped the doorjamb on either side of me, my knuckles turning white. “How about this then: If I’m your mate, why don’t you tell me what exactly that means? Why don’t you tell me why no one knows about it but a handful of people. Why didn’t you announce it at the meeting, Sun? I’m not delusional enough to believe it’s because I don’t agree with you—you’re arrogant enough to announce it anyway. So tell me, why didn’t you?”
He hesitated.
That hurt. It hurt bad, but I’d be damned if I let him see that. And there was plenty of anger to cover it. “That’s what I thought. Or maybe you just don’t want to admit that a ‘liar’ like me isn’t good enough for the Archai king.”
“You’re my mate. Of course you are good enough.”
“So my connection to you makes me acceptable? What about when people find out about my gift?” A flicker crossed Sun’s face, confirming my doubts. And just to make it worse, I had to add, “Cale isn’t likely to keep quiet, you know. Not after you punched him. What happens when it gets out that I used my gift to seduce one of your warriors?”
“You didn’t have sex with Cale.”
“Think they’ll actually believe that? Even you don’t truly believe it.”
“I believe it,” he ground out. “And if I accept you, my people will too. They’ll have to.”
My laugh sounded hollow even to me. What was it he’d said earlier? “Keep telling yourself that.”
Anger flashed, hot and bright, in Sun’s eyes. He was on me before I could take another breath. Scrambling backward, I nearly fell on my ass before he caught me.
“Damn it!”
My first instinct was always to fight, no matter the circumstances—words, fists, whatever, I was going to make you regret coming up against me. I fought Sun now, adrenaline zinging through my veins. I didn’t think I’d ever get used to how fast they could move. How quick any situation could go from okay to full-blown FUBAR in an instant. But I had no intention of giving in, no matter what Sun wanted.
My breath was ragged and my muscles trembling with fatigue before I registered that Sun wasn’t moving at all. He stood there, holding me, just as he had when I fell, but he remained motionless otherwise. He wasn’t trying to fight. His body surrounded mine, his heat slowly seeping into me, his arms and chest a firm cage with no give, but that was as far as he took it. I held myself as still as possible, waiting, but Sun didn’t budge.
“What…what are you doing?” I finally asked.
He sighed, and I could feel his chin settle on my head. “I don’t know what to do with you, Rissa.”
I didn’t know I could growl, but the angry rumble that escaped me sure sounded like it. “How about just treating me like a human being for once.”Like you used to,I wanted to say but didn’t.
“You’re not a human being, and neither am I.” His arms squeezed down on me. “Every time you argue with me, every time you defy me, you spark this…need. To tame you, to control you. It’s not the animal in me, it’s…me. You push me beyond the restraint that has governed me for a thousand years in a single instant.”
Maybe he needed his ass pushed, but I wasn’t going to mention that. “Defiance has always been my MO, so you’d best get used to it,” I said grudgingly. “Just because you don’t like me arguing doesn’t give you an excuse to do whatever you want to me.”
“You’re my mate.”
“And if that means I no longer have free will, that I’m now a slave to whatever your will is, with no say of my own, I don’t want it.”
Sun jerked back. Shock stared down at me when I met his eyes.
“I mean it, Sun. I won’t have any part of a relationship like that, mate or not.”
He rubbed at his face with his hands. Was I that hard to deal with, for fuck’s sake?
“Archai don’t reject their mates.”
“If you don’t get your act together, this one does.” I crossed the room to sit on the edge of the bed. “Think about it, Sun. How would you want to be treated by the person who’s supposed to lo— care about you?”
Those beautiful eyes narrowed on me. “My parents were adversaries, not lovers.”
“All the more reason not to follow their example. No offense, but your dad sounds like he was a major asshole.” I paused. “I kinda see where you get it.”
I swore a smile tugged at one side of his lips.Score one for the sarcastic mate.
