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)
“Why isn’t it getting better?” she asked, her hands roaming. “It usually gets better.”
Instead of telling her my suspicion that she’d forced the connection to strengthen when she’d seriously threatened to reject the bond, I just pulled her closer and slid my hands under her T-shirt. When I pulled it off, her torso was covered in large red patches.
I winced as I leaned over her, our torsos pressed together so closely that even air couldn’t find its way between us. The cooling sensation that I’d come to expect when we were touching wasn’t as evident as it usually was, but the heat did seem to lessen enough that I felt like I could think again.
“I can’t control what Charlie does,” I whispered in her ear as I ran my hands over anywhere I could reach.
Getting my hands on her did more than treat the heat’s symptoms. It cleared the fog in my head enough that I was actually able to speak rationally.
“Yes, you can,” she replied, her hands just as busy. I shuddered as her nails dragged down my back.
“It’s unfair of you to ask it of me,” I countered, lifting my head until we were nose to nose. “He’s my brother-in-law. The last link to my baby brother, and you’re asking me to potentially sever that connection because you’re afraid.”
“Of course I’m afraid.” She glared.
“He’ll be with my father.”
“That doesn’t fill me with comfort.”
“It should.”
“Well, it doesn’t.”
“Baby,” I said softly. “You realize that Charlie is immortal, right?”
She scoffed.
“Nothing will happen to him.”
“He could get hurt.”
“He’ll heal.”
“He isn’t built for this,” she whispered. “He’ll…he’ll be scared, and I won’t be there.”
Oh.
It wasn’t just about the threat to Charlie’s physical safety. I should’ve seen it sooner. Beneath all the anger and the threats, I should’ve paid attention to the fear in Lucy’s eyes. She wasn’t just concerned that her brother could die, which was a very thin possibility. She was terrified to let him face it all on his own when she’d spent her life as the protective barrier between her brother and the world.
“He knows that we’ll be there,” I assured her, smoothing the damp hair from her forehead. “He won’t be afraid.”
“You can’t promise that.”
“No, I can’t,” I admitted. “But I can promise that we won’t leave him. We’ll be watching the entire time, Lucy.”
“I could go too,” she said hopefully as tears ran down her temples. “We could go together, and then—”
“No,” I cut her off.
“You didn’t even listen to me. I’d be just as safe as Charlie—”
“I said no.”
“You don’t get to tell me what to do.”
“In this, I do.”
“That’s bullshit. I could be just as effective as Charlie as bait.”
“No, you couldn’t,” I snapped.
“That’s ridiculous. I—”
“You haven’t completed the bond,” I said flatly. “You are not immortal. You are a human, and your body is frail like a human’s. It’s out of the question.”
Lucy glared at me. “Then let’s complete it,” she said stubbornly as she jerked her chin up. “Go ahead. Do it.”
I stared at her neck for a moment before I snapped out of it.
“Lucy—”
“Do it,” she ordered. “Come on. It’s what you wanted, right?”
I tore myself from the bed.
“No,” she groaned, reaching for me as I stepped out of reach.
“Not that way,” I ground out.
“Oh, so now you have conditions?” she complained as she rose to her knees.
“Even if we completed it now, we have no way of knowing how soon your immortality would begin.” I ran my fingers through my hair in frustration. It was almost impossible to keep myself from climbing back onto the bed and taking her up on the offer, even though I knew it wouldn’t change the fact that she would have to stay behind.
“But, it could, right?” she argued. “It’s worth a shot.”
“You’re not going with Charlie.”
“Fuck you,” she cried, throwing a pillow at me. It bounced off my chest and fell to the floor.
“Every moment you prolong this, is another moment that Finau’s mate is being—” I snapped my mouth shut. No.
“Being what?” she asked.
“She’s in danger,” I ground out.
“No, that’s not what you said.” She climbed off the bed. “She’s being what, Ambrose?”
“Tortured,” I replied. The vision of my brother’s body in the command morgue flashed through my mind. The dips in the sheet where they’d severed his legs and arms and head. I swallowed back the bile in my throat.
“What?” Lucy whispered.
“You’re not fucking going,” I roared, taking a step back when she reached for me. “That’s the end of it.”
She stared at me in frustration, her hands in fists down by her sides.
“Fine,” she replied, still glaring. “Fine, I won’t go.”
I dipped my chin in a nod. Good.
“Could you at least hold me?” she gritted out as her teeth began to chatter.
Fuck.
I reached for her, and she launched herself toward me so forcefully that I fell back a step when I caught her. We didn’t make it back to the bed. Instead, I lowered myself to the floor and leaned back against the wall. She straddled my lap and tucked her face into my neck as I ran my hands up and down her spine.