Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 92043 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92043 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
“I’ll assume the conversation didn’t improve after you’d left,” he said awkwardly as he sat down a few feet away.
“You could say that,” I ground out, closing my eyes.
I’d never lost control so badly before. The moment she’d said she would never accept the bond, something inside me had snapped. I had to get away from her before I did something unforgivable.
“I understand why she’s angry,” Beau mused. “I’m not sure that using Charlie is a good idea.”
“Would you rather use Reese?” I snapped as the muscles in my back rippled and fire raced down my spine. I needed to go back in the house. Who knew what Lucy was doing in there?
I just couldn’t trust myself yet.
“Reese was never an option,” Beau replied flatly.
“What?”
“I said Reese was never an option.”
“Never an option for what?” I mumbled in confusion. Gods, why was he talking to me?
My heart felt like it was going to beat out of my chest.
She couldn’t leave me. I didn’t even think it would be physically possible. But if she tried, would I be able to let her? I wasn’t sure of that either. The logical side of my brain kept reminding me that mating bonds were sacred and only taken willingly, but thousands of years of instincts urged me to go back inside and start the blood exchange.
I wasn’t sure how long we stayed outside. It felt like hours, but it could’ve been minutes. When Beau realized that I wasn’t able to hold a conversation, he stopped talking and just sat with me in silence as I tried not to come out of my skin. It wasn’t until Chance came jogging toward us that I had the strength to rise to my feet again.
“You need to get back inside,” he called. “Right now.”
“What’s wrong?” I grunted, the muscles in my back and arms so tight that my entire upper body felt like it was encased in cement.
“Lucy—”
He didn’t say anything else before I was hurrying toward the front door. If she was trying to leave, I had to stop her.
When I got back inside, the house was in chaos. Alice was ordering people around, Danny was talking over Chance as they tried to explain something to our dad, and Charlie was yelling.
“What’s wrong with her?” he said frantically. “Luce? What the hell is wrong?”
I found her on the stairs. As Charlie reached for her, she reared backward like she couldn’t bear for him to touch her.
“Baby,” I called, my voice raw.
“Ambrose,” she breathed.
When she turned her head, my legs turned to water. Her eyes were so swollen that she could barely see out of them, and her face was wet with a mixture of tears and sweat. She was curled up tightly on the bottom step, her heels to her ass and her arms tucked against her chest. Her bag was in a heap at the bottom of the stairs.
“It hurts,” she groaned, her teeth chattering as she rocked back and forth.
“Move,” Alice ordered Charlie, pulling him out of the way.
“Stop. She’s my sister,” he argued.
“She’s not your sister right now,” Alice chided. “She’s Ambrose’s mate.”
My throat felt thick, but my steps were steady as I made my way toward her. When I was less than a foot away, she used the banister to slowly pull herself to her feet.
She let out a sob as I started up the stairs. I’d barely reached her when I could feel the heat coming off her body. A fever that high would’ve killed someone who wasn’t experiencing mating heat, but even so, I wasn’t even sure how she was still conscious. Her hands shook as she lifted them toward me, and the sound she let out when her fingertips brushed my bare chest made me forget the audience we had.
“Come here,” I ordered gruffly, pulling her against me.
She held me so tight as I lifted her into my arms, it was as if she was trying to crawl inside me. I took the stairs slowly, my own body not quite recovered yet.
Instead of being doused in cold water, the relief came in small increments. My head stopped pounding. The nausea mellowed. But the heat beneath my skin remained.
“I don’t like this,” Lucy whimpered as we reached my rooms.
I didn’t either.
I’d never heard of the heat reacting that way to a threat that wasn’t physical. I’d damn near lost all sense of myself.
“Shh,” I murmured, carrying her into the bedroom.
“Don’t let him go,” she whispered against my neck. “Don’t let him go.”
“No one’s going anywhere right now,” I assured her. I could promise her that much. They wouldn’t go through with any of it until I was capable of leaving her side. Finau’s mate was important, but not at the cost of my own.
Lucy wouldn’t let go of me long enough to set her down on the bed, so I crawled onto it with her clinging to me like a monkey. It was awkwardly done, but eventually we made it to the pillows.