Page 53 of Seeded By Two

Feon fell onto the bed’s edge, back curled, head hanging low.

He shook his head and gazed at his hands.

Then, without looking at me — in fact, I thought he had his eyes closed — he said in a haunted voice:

“How could you do it to me?”

He wasn’t going to kill me, I realized.

At least, not right now.

I remained on the floor but pushed myself up onto my ass.

My body was still in shock, recovering from the shock.

“I didn’t know…” I croaked through my crushed throat. “I didn’t know it was her. I thought she was… a mate you had sent to… me. You said you were going to… send me one. And I thought… I didn’t know… If I knew…”

I let out a deep sigh of regret before turning my head to one side, feeling truly disgusted with myself.

“This never should… have happened,” I gasped. “And it wouldn’t have… if I knew… she was your fated mate.”

Feon was quiet for a long moment and his gaze hardened. “I took your mate, so you took mine.”

“No. That was not… my intention.”

“You took from me what I took from you. You did this on purpose.”

He turned his head and massive body toward me, his eyes stony and glaring.

The blood had rushed to his eyes, turning the purple veins bright.

Very often, those branches of purple were the very last thing a creature saw before it met its maker.

Maybe it would be for me too.

“I would never do… that,” I rasped. “I came to this facility… for a mate. Not your mate. And certainly not your… fated mate. I would never… do that to you. Never.”

I leaned forward and, taking one of the greatest risks of my life, placed my hand on his knee. “I would never do that to you. You know that.”

I met his glare with my own.

His was of anger, mine of honesty and understanding.

Harming him was the very last thing I would ever do.

Under ordinary circumstances, he would have known that.

He wouldn’t have doubted it for a moment.

I needed him to peer through the red mist of his Steyatt and see reason.

The same way I had earlier.

Slowly, his jaw grew unclenched and his eyes lost their murderous rage.

Most tellingly of all, he had not moved his knee from my touch nor denied my apology.

But I was still not out of the woods.

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