Page 96 of Savage Blood
She might have been his fated mate at one point—before she rejected him—but he barely tolerated her now. The fear of losing him cast doubts through my mind, though, and I couldn’t stop the panic swirling in my gut. I did my best to block it from the bond before Fane felt it.
After trudging through the forest for a few minutes, following the magnetic pull that always led me toward him, I found the pair. My heart lurched, and frost crawled over my skin. They stood so close there was barely any space between them.
“Don’t you think it would be so much easier for her tochoose Saint if”—Marissa reached out and held his hand—“you were with your own fated mate?”
Fane shook his head and stared up at the sky. “Tate would never believe I’d leave her for you.”
Some of the tightness in my chest eased. But Marissa was bound and determined to have the man she threw away.
“Make her believe it.” She grabbed his face and angled it toward hers as she stood on her toes to meet his lips.
All the air drained out of me, like a popped, deflating balloon, and my knees threatened to buckle. The man I loved was on the verge of betraying everything we’d been fighting for these last few years with one kiss.
One kiss that would break me.
Chapter
Twenty-Three
My heart threatenedto splinter into a thousand pieces, never to be repaired again, as Marissa drew Fane’s lips toward hers. He didn’t stop her.
He wasn’t stopping her.
My soul screamed in protest, in anguish, while my lungs refused to work. Did Fane feel like this every time he saw me with Saint? But I’d never kissed Saint. And Fane and Marissa had done much more than that when they were younger.
As if the fog cleared from Fane’s mind, snapping him awake, he broke Marissa’s grip and stepped back. “What the hell are you doing?”
Her lips parted, and she fluttered her lashes, closing the distance between them. “I’m only doing what’s right, Fane.”
He gripped Marissa’s wrists to stop her as she reached for him again. “Thisisn’tright. I have a mate.”
My pulse thundered in my ears, forcing me to strain to hear the conversation as my bottom lip trembled. I should have known Fane wouldn’t kiss her.
He wouldn’t betray me like that.
“She has a fated mate,” Marissa said.
“And I don’t care.” He dropped her wrists and took another step back, the moonlight shining on the scars stippling his face, neck, and arms. “It wouldn’t matter if Tate had ten fated mates. She’s still mine.”
“How can you let her run around with Saint? Tate can’t possibly be giving you all that you need.” A seductive smile pulled at Marissa’s lips as she gripped his shirt. “Don’t you remember what it was like being with me, Fane?”
“Before or after you called me a monster and threw me away?” He raked his hand through his hair, nostrils flaring. “Why am I suddenly good enough for you? Because someone else wants me?”
My agony and sorrow evaporated, and rage blossomed in their place. No one could make him feel that way, like a piece of trash, like he didn’t matter. Marissa rejected Fane years ago, but the sting of it still pulsated through him.
She didn’t get to hurt him and then try to steal him from me. Even though our relationship was rocky, Fane was still very much mine.
Mine.
My animal side purred within—and then growled, ready to yank this leech off my beautiful beast once and for all.
“Back the fuck away from my mate,” I demanded, bursting through the trees.
Fane’s eyes widened as he sensed the deadly intent rising inside me. I’d kill her if I had to.
Marissa’s lips curled back to bare her sharpening canines. “He was mine first.”
My inner wolf roared, and within the next few steps, my black and scarlet paws hit the soft forest ground. Neither Fane nor Marissa had time to react before my agile lupine formlaunched through the air and tackled her into a bed of pine needles.
