Page 42 of Dark & Dreadful Brutes

“My mate kissed another male, and had his arms around her,” Ravv gritted out.

Her gaze jerked to me. “Are you insane?”

“No, I’m not insane. I’m not the bastard who started a mate bond with a complete stranger and then carried her across the world, lying to her about everything and then expecting her to just go along with it!” I tossed a hand toward Ravv. “Don’t blame me for his stupid decisions.”

“Regardless, you can’t kiss someone else while you’re mated. You could start another damn war,” she shot back, as she and her idorr stepped closer to each other, blocking Ravv more completely.

“He’s the one who’s losing control,” I snapped back.

“Mated fae are protective. If he kissed another woman, you’d lose control too.”

Ravv glowered at me. “I wouldn’t betray her that way.”

I wasn’t touching those comments. “Just tell me how to get out of this ridiculous bond and this city, and we’ll all be free of each other.” I gestured to my arm.

“The eclipse is the only thing that can break it. We’re staying out here to make sure neither of you leave.” She shot Ravv a warning look. “Talk to her. Fix this.”

The door shut behind her and her idorr.

I scoffed, striding back to the bed.

“Don’t consider climbing beneath my blankets smelling like another man,” Ravv snarled. When I tossed him a glare over my shoulder, I found him striding toward me.

I turned and planted my feet, putting my hands on my hips. “This is my bed. You told me it was my room.”

“That was before you went and kissed Toveo. Now, you’re sleeping with me again. In my arms. Where I know you can’t touch another damn male.”

My hands ignited, and I clenched my fists as they blazed. “You used me. You’ve used me this entire time. Someone has to get the stain of your touch off my skin.”

He covered the rest of the distance between us and grabbed my face in his hands again. Despite the roughness, his grip didn’t hurt in the slightest as he tilted my head back. He was trying to assert his dominance over me, but I wasn’t giving in this time.

“I used your magic to protect myself from an ancient assassin, after an elf told me it was the only way I could survive.”

“You only protected me to protect yourself,” I shot back.

His voice went low and dark. “If I didn’t care about you, I wouldn’t have fed you. I wouldn’t have washed you. I wouldn’t have given you my blood, or touched you.”

“Oh, please. I’m sure you spend every night with a different woman.”

“I haven’t intimately touched a female or had sex in nearly a century,” he growled back.

“Is that supposed to make me think you’re a damn saint?” I sneered. “How impressive; you resist your urges with the women you respect. Because I’m just a worthless human, you abduct me, lie to me, use me, and—”

He cut me off by hauling me off my feet and whisking me away from the bed. The bastard tossed me into the bathing pool before I had a chance to shout at him.

I surfaced a moment later, sputtering and shoving hair out of my eyes. “You should’ve left me to rot in that damned cellar.” My voice shook with the fury I had no other way to express. My fire was still burning beneath the water, my flames growing instead of shrinking.

Ravv kneeled at the edge of the pool and leaned toward me. “No, I shouldn’t have. Like it or not, fate declared you mine. Now, tell me what happened, or we stay here all night.”

“Cross the veil,” I spat.

“The only one crossing the veil tonight is Toveo, for touching what’s mine.”

More rage flooded me, and I grabbed him by the arm, yanking him toward the water. The movement must’ve surprised him, because I actually managed to pull his heavy ass off balance. He crashed into the water right on top of me, dragging me beneath the surface.

My lungs screamed, but Ravv hauled me back out, spitting, “Dammit, woman.”

“Damn you.” I shoved him away from me, but he only gripped me tighter, treading water to keep both of us afloat. “You are an absolute bastard. Not once, in all those times you claimed you saved me, did it occur to you to tell me the truth! To say, ‘hey, Lae, I only started this mate bond because I needed your magic to protect mine, so don’t get too comfortable’.”

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