Page 58 of Shadow Warrior
An icy fist grabbed my heart, and I took a step away from him. “Okay. I’ll just be a minute.”
Behind my screen in the dorm, I shucked off the armor and quickly pulled on sweats and a tee. I was back in the lounge in record time to find Brady in the same position I’d left him in. He was braced against the countertop, his head bowed.
Two mugs of cocoa were placed to the side, steam rising in neat curls.
His shoulders rose and fell, and then he picked up the mugs and turned to face me. His eyes were red-rimmed as if from lack of sleep, and the corners of his mouth were turned. It was the face of someone dwelling on unpleasant things … Or the face of someone about to deliver unpleasant news.
My stomach quivered in apprehension. “Brady … you’re scaring me.”
He set the mugs on the table. “Please, sit. We need to talk.”
We need to talk? No sentence that ever started with those words ended well. Panic made my breath shallow and my chest tight because I knew what was coming.
“No.” I shook my head. “Just tell me what you have to say. Spit it out.”
Heat gathered behind my eyes as if in preparation for the words that would tear me apart.
Brady ran a hand over his face. “I’ve run out of time, Justice. You know about ogre-tainted. You know about how we mate, how we bond. But I didn’t tell you about my adopted family. I didn’t tell you that they’re troll-tainted. They also mate for life, but they don’t suffer from the same affliction as ogres. They don’t have the same intense draw to a mate that ogres do. They have a tradition, one that has been observed for centuries. One I vowed to uphold.”
Where was he going with this?
“In the Stonewall family, the male must take a mate by his twenty-fifth year.”
It struck me that I hadn’t bothered to ask Brady how old he was, but it was obvious now. “You’re twenty-five?”
“In a few months. Tradition dictates that if I don’t find my own mate, the heads of the household will find one for me.” His throat bobbed. “They’ve picked out a mate for me. The mating will take place at the end of term.”
My body went cold and then blazed hot. “And you said yes?” My tone was incredulous.
He blinked slowly at me. “I have no choice. I made a vow.”
“And what about us? What about what your ogre wants?”
A look of pain skimmed across his face. “When I made the vow, I’d hoped that the mate my ogre chose would be the one. That I’d satisfy both my family’s traditions and my own primal nature. But I’m out of time. I went home hoping to extricate myself from the vow I made. To give us more time. But I failed.” He took a step toward me and checked himself. “I can’t give you more time, and I can’t force you to make a decision you’re not ready to make, so I’m letting you go.” His eyes were dark, so dark they were pits of grief in his face. “Fuck, it hurts.”
His voice was raw as he wrapped an arm around his torso.
He needed a mate. He wanted me, but he thought I wasn’t ready, but … but I was. I was ready to give myself to him. I was ready to be his mate.
He was looking down at the cocoa, a nostalgic smile on his face. “I’d hoped we’d share many nights of cocoa to come.”
My heart swelled in my chest as I bridged the distance between us. He tensed, his gaze flying to my face.
“Indigo …”
I reached up to stroke his jaw and ran my thumb over his bottom lip. “Let’s get something straight, Stonewall. No one, and I mean fucking no one, gets to kiss these lips but me.” I pressed my mouth to his in a firm kiss before pulling away. “And no one gets to ride this …” My hand slid over his crotch, my stomach flipping as he swelled beneath my touch.
Brady’s chest rose and fell rapidly as he scanned my face. “What are you saying?”
I gripped his arousal through the fabric of his sweats, and he sucked in a sharp breath that was part moan, part shock. A thrill of power shot through me. I did this to him, I made his pupils dilate and his cheeks flush.
I licked my lips and leaned in close so our breath mingled. “I’m saying you can call your parents and tell them you’ve found your mate. You can tell them you belong to me.”
His dark eyes flared bright with stars, and then his hand was on the nape of my neck, holding me steady, holding me close.
“Mine?” He ran the tip of his nose up my cheek and inhaled. “You want to be mine?”
The tenor of his voice had dropped, deeper, more gravelly.
