Page 17 of A Reign of Malice
My wolf howls, but this time, the sound isn’t sorrowful. It’s filled with the greatest joy I didn’t believe we’d ever feel.
Mate.
“Don’t look at me like that,” the man pleads, his voice raspy as if he hasn’t spoken in some time. “I thought I wanted you to find me, but I don’t think I can bear to have you this close and not touch you.”
The torture in his voice pokes at my defenses. I try to ignore his despair, but the mate bond is hard to ignore when his hurt is this loud.
His eyes remain downcast and his shoulders now slump as his chained arms settle back into the water. Tangled hair falls forward and every instinct within me wants to reach outand brush it back so I can see into his gaze, finding the truths I so desperately seek.
Yet, no matter how much I try to remain impassive, the agony rolling off him has tears filling my eyes. His pain is already becoming my own. It shouldn’t be possible, but then again, the power of a mate bond isn’t to be controlled.
It’s meant to be accepted.
I could fight this. I could pretend I feel nothing, but that seems like a losing battle. Even now, when I still have so many questions.
Because in this moment, regardless of the lack of sense, I don’t care how or why he became strapped to this wall. All I know is that I need him more than my next breath.
“I’m going to get you out.”
His responding snarl sends a ripple of terror down my spine. “No. Leave. Now. Before it’s too late.”
“Too late for what?” I ask even though there’s not a chance in hell I’m leaving my mate here.
The man looks back up at me, and I gasp. Now that I’m closer, his facial features…they’re familiar. No, more than that. They’re the exact same as the man I’m set to bond with in just a few days’ time.
“Aeson?” I don’t know how it’s possible, but it’s him. The man I had dinner with last night is right here. Only not the same. Has someone been impersonating him this whole time? Is this why I thought I felt a connection to him?
His lip curls, revealing pointed, almost feral, canines. “No.”
My pulse thunders in my ears. “Then who?—”
“It doesn’t matter,” he snaps. “You need to go. I don’t want you here.”
I laugh lightly and stand back up. “I don’t think you’re in aposition to be making demands. I’m not leaving until I’m ready.”
“You don’t understand.” His voice is laced with desperation. “He’ll kill you if he knows you’ve found me.”
“Who? The Aeson out there? I’m not afraid of…”
The hollowness returns just before I’m pulled back to the darkness that brought me to the cave. When I can see again, I’m in the hallway with Clara frantically shaking me. “Damn it, Sloane. What the hell just happened?”
“I found my mate.” The words tremble as they leave my lips, my chest still heaving from the intensity of it all. My cheeks are damp, my entire body raw with the aftershocks of what just happened. What I felt.
I stagger toward the wall, reaching for the runes again, desperate to get back to him.
But nothing happens.
The magic remains silent, the connection is severed as if it was never there at all.
The void that follows is unbearable. A sharp, aching emptiness that settles in my chest like a wound that refuses to close.
“I have to get back in there.”
“Absolutely not.” Clara pulls me away from the wall. “We have no idea what’s trapped behind there. It could be a trick. They might be able to manipulate you, and I won’t risk your life until I know more about these runes.”
“It’s not your choice.” I rip myself free, my body already moving back to the stone, hands slamming over the runes, but there’s still nothing. No vision. No pull. The runes don’t even flicker.
I press my forehead against the stone, a fissure inside my heart, but my resolve remains unshaken.
