Page 69 of Tortured Soul
My lips parted in shock. He didn’t move an inch, his usually kind of soft eyes now cold, studying my face.
“You have no idea—”
“You’ve let your mate fall to his curse,” he snapped, interrupting me.
“Did he tell you that?” I scoffed, shaking my head in disbelief.
“He didn’t need to. He said you met a long time ago, and that’s enough information for me to deduce that you had plenty of time to stop the madness from progressing and that you somehow just chose not to.”
I felt my teeth grind in the back of my mouth. If I had any doubts about Carrie keeping her mouth shut about our little talk, now I was certain.
“Not that it’s any of your business since it’s between Dimitri and me, but you’ve got this all wrong.”
“Tell me, then.” He shrugged, and whatever words were about to leave my mouth evaporated. “What could possibly be a good enough reason to abandon yourmateto his terrible fate? To let him go mad? Go ahead, I’m all ears, and I can’twaitto understand what the hell is going on here.”
I seethed, nails digging into my palms even through the shirt that I was still pulling down as far as I could.
Turning my face to the side to avoid his pointed stare, my inner brat kicked in.
“Why should I? You didn’t seem too inclined to acknowledge thatIwas your mate. You were, in fact, quite the ass when we first met.”
His chuckle didn’t sound amused.
“How was I supposed to act?” he asked. “Youlooked ready to either try to kill me or flee through the window. It didn’t seem like the right time for a heartfelt confession.”
Not exactly my thoughts at that time, but I wasn’t going to contradict him on that. My brain was actually torn between fleeing, yes, but also fucking him right there in that damn room.
I groaned, hiding my face in my arms, folding my legs closer to my body. The room fell silent until he let out a tired sigh.
“I’m really trying to understand here. I know the…situation, with Carter is less than ideal, but—”
“I didn’t know,” I cut him off, my voice barely audible over the loud beats of my own heart. “That either of you were my mates. I didn’t know. I can’t—”I don’t have a soul.“—can’t feel these bonds. Must be because I’m a Succubus or something,” I lied.
It wasn’tentirelya lie. Up until that same morning, I thought it was the reason. I would have still believed it if not for my conversation with Carrie.
But telling the truth felt uncertain. It could bring false hopes. Could I even retrieve the soul the demon robbed me of? And if I did, would I be able to claim it back? Would I feel the link connecting me to my mates then?
“I know,” he confessed. “Kai told me.”
Our eyes met as I lifted my face. “Kai told you?”
“That you didn’t know. He can hear minds on a surface level.” Would have appreciated that heads up when I first got here to ensure my mind and all the things in it were protected from the start…I could only hope he didn’t glimpse too many important secrets. “He said you had no clues when he met me to ask about the archives position for you.”
That damn rat—
“Why the hell are you giving me shit about that whole thing now, then? You’ve basically accused me of—”
“Because I don’t understand,” he said sharply, pushing himself away from his dresser and stalking toward the bed. Towardme. “Because you’re a fucking mystery to me and you haven’t told me shit about you except that you’ve been abused because of what you are. All the other scraps of information I got because of other people or my damned visions.”
He kneeled on the mattress, advancing on all fours before stopping right in front of my face. Panic settled in as I realized I couldn’t escape since I’d already backed all the way up to the headboard.
“Because I can’t do anything else other thanassumewhen it comes to you.”
His warm minty breath fanned over my parted lips as his mouth was inches away from mine. My blood was pulsing in my ears and the air stuck in my lungs.
“Stop treating me like your enemy,” he said, his eyes softening ever so slightly. “I’m not. I’m yourmate, whether you can feel it or not.”
I had trouble focusing on his words when his near naked body was so close to mine. In my attempted escape, the T-shirt he had lent me had lifted up to my waist and my legs were no longer folded against me in protection.
