Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 118860 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 594(@200wpm)___ 475(@250wpm)___ 396(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 118860 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 594(@200wpm)___ 475(@250wpm)___ 396(@300wpm)
Eternity? The word horrified her. The way she felt so connected to him, as if her soul and his were one and the same, was even worse.
“Ainaak terád vigyázak. You are always in my care.”
The moment the last words were spoken, she felt tight bands snap into place inside her. Ties so tight there would be no getting away from him. Somehow, he had really bound them together.
“You have to undo this,” she whispered.
“I fear that is an impossibility.” He said it calmly.
Screw calm. She leapt to her feet, slamming both palms to his chest to knock him backward, away from her. “You undo it right now. Right this minute. You don’t get to take away my freedom of choice. Or any of my freedoms. I don’t care what kind of scary badass you are—undo it now.”
The fact that she hit him as hard as she could and he didn’t so much as rock backward added fuel to the fire. Her temper erupted, and she swung her fist at his face. He caught it in midair. As he did, she caught a brief flash of amusement, not just his but shared with his brothers. That only infuriated her more.
“If I were you, I wouldn’t close my eyes when you put yourself in the ground,” she hissed. “You never know what’s going to find its way to your bed.” She stuck her chin in the air and tried to pull her fist out of his hand. “It isn’t going to be me.”
“I think your woman just threatened you,” Lojos said.
“She’s got fire, that one,” Dominic said. “That’s a good thing. She’ll need it to stand up to you, Tomas.”
“She doesn’t need to stand up to me.” His voice was velvet-smooth again, and he looked straight into her eyes as he raised her curled fist to his mouth. “She can trust me to guide her through our customs.”
That strange fireball he seemed to be able to produce rushed through her veins and settled low again. That was so disturbing, when she wanted to kick him in the shins and maybe do even worse to him. She really didn’t like that he shared his amusement with his brothers.
“You aren’t going to guide me through anything. Do you really think your taking away my choices in any way endears you to me?” She leaned into him. “It does not. Just because you did this doesn’t mean I’m giving up my plans to leave this place. Every single one of you is insane. The whole lot of you.”
“Sivamet,” he said, using that same velvet voice so it not only stroked over her skin but ignited every nerve ending in her body. “You know you’re speaking from a place of fear. I’m well aware you have every reason to be afraid, but there is no need. You trusted your cousin to protect you; you have three of us now.”
She lifted her head to glare at Luiz. “I trusted him and look where it got me.”
Luiz lifted an eyebrow at her. “Our laws do not allow interference when it comes to lifemates.”
“So if he decides to abuse me, there is nothing any of you would do? All of you act so righteous, as if you’re better than those horrid male shifters, but you’re basically telling me I have no rights because I’m a woman. What’s the difference between them and you?”
She was furious. More than furious. She was terrified. She despised being weak. She detested that she’d practically had a breakdown in front of these men. Mostly, she hated that she wanted to burst into tears and cry for hours. She was so close, struggling to hold on to her anger so she wouldn’t fall apart in front of them.
She didn’t know what being a lifemate entailed, but she was fairly certain Tomas was going to take her somewhere away from her cousin. Luiz might say he believed one couldn’t interfere between lifemates, but he was a family man, and if he thought for one moment Tomas was hurting her, she was certain he would come to her aid.
“Sarika.” Dominic drew her attention with his gentle voice. “It is impossible for a Carpathian lifemate to, in any way, harm his woman. She is his world. He protects her at all costs and sees to her happiness. She is his first priority.”
She pounced on that. “So if Tomas is seeing to my happiness, then he will escort me to the river and see to it that I get safely on a boat so I can leave this place. That’s what would make me happy.” There was pure challenge and triumph in the look she shot Tomas.
His answer was to wrap his arm around her and pull her close to the heat of his body. He felt rock solid. Immovable. He also felt like a tower of strength. It was strange how her body reacted to him when her brain was nearly paralyzed with fear. She felt the burn of tears behind her eyes, and she stiffened, one hand going to his rib cage to push him away. She could not break down in front of these men.