Page 25 of Fake Fae-Ancée

"I was listening to you!" she yelled. "It’s not my fault when you have nothing but bullshit to say. Can't you finally leave me the fuck alone?"

"I'll leave you alone once you're safe," I hissed back.

"I am safe! The only danger I’m in is you telling me more bullshit," she yelled. "Let me make two things very clear. First: I don’t need your protection. And second: none of this explains anything. Like why you’ve forced your damn ring on me again!"

She held her hand up, fingers fanned out, aiming to my face. The ring sparkled.

"Thisisfor your protection," I growled, grabbing her wrist. I could not help myself.

"Let me go!"

She tried to yank her hand free. And on any other day, she would have succeeded — and immediately retaliated and slammed me against the next convenient wall. But now her resistance held the strength of a wet towel.

Her eyes widened with shock and rage — and back in my mind, Bear rumbled with satisfaction. He liked this way too much, too.

"Listen to me." This came out in a low growl, much more menacing than intended. Kai flinched, glaring back at me, face turning red.

"Let go of me!"

"I'm taking you back to my place now."

She snorted. "The hell you are."

She yanked on her arm, shooting me another infuriated glare.

"You're still my wife!" Bear within me snarled as I pulled her closer.

"Oh yeah?" she said, her eyes wide, her voice low. "Is a marriage even legally binding if the husband just disappears and the bride has to find out from the press that he is actually promised to someone else?"

I faltered. Freezing cold spread through my stomach.

Kai's voice held a treacherous wobble, a telltale glint appearing in the corners of her eyes. And that was like a dagger in my guts.

There it was. Our final problem. I had hurt her. And I would pay for it until the end of time. But still, I had no other choice but to keep her safe and protect her — and if I had to, I’d drag her out of here by her hair, kicking and screaming.

Time to be an asshole.

"Oh, the marriage is legal, my little star." I tightened my grip around her wrist and pulled. The silk of her dress rustled. She gasped as she fell flush against me. "We were both present when it was consummated. And you liked it very much. Every single time."

Her mouth dropped open, her face flushed violently, and a sudden heat darted through me, head to toe. I probably should have phrased this differently. Bear came forward, snarling and sniffling, with her body so close and her warmth and scent and everything else about her flooding my senses. I shouldn’t think about us having sex, let alone talk about it right now. Not when I wanted her to cooperate, get her out of here and back to safety.

A memory flashed through my mind.

A few years ago. The wedding of an army buddy of ours, whom everyone just called Old Sparky. Ironically right at this very estate. And of course, Kai and I had run into each other and exchanged the usual pleasantries, aka Kai informing me what a useless bastard I was and marching off with steam shooting out of her ears.

She’d been wearing the very same dress that day. With the hypnotic slit on her leg, exposing olive skin right to the end of her upper thigh. That had occupied my overtaxed brain the entire day, like a glittering fish bait dangling in front of me, taunting but out of reach.

But something had been off, that day.

I had sensed it in my bones. Something about Kai had been different. Not right. Her scent had been tinted with a sadness that made my toes curl.

Not much later I’d found her alone in one of the upstairs drawing rooms — much like the room we were standing in now, glaring at each other.

She had been crying.

This had shocked me the most, so much that I must have stopped dead in the doorway, staring at her for a whole minute.

Kai never cried. She lacked the enzymes or something. At least that's what I had believed until then.

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