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But I would have gladly fucking given it to her, craved that truth in my chest so there was no denying what I said.
“As far as finding out who you are, well—” I shrugged. “It’s easy enough to find out anyone’s information in this day and age of technology right at your fingertips.” My explanation wasn't a lie, but it also wasn’t the entire story either. I’d told her I wouldn’t lie, and I wouldn't. Never to her, never in my life. I didn't need to fabricate the truth. I had enough power at my fingertips that the hard, cold, and brutal truth was the only way to go about living in my world.
“I make it my business to know who enters my club.” I stared at her for a prolonged moment, surprised and appreciative as hell that she wasn’t shying away, that she was now looking at me right in the eyes and waiting for me to continue. “If it makes you feel any better, I’ve looked up people who’ve come into my club before.” Of course not for the reason I did for you. Not because I had the intention of stalking them or breaking into their house and watching them sleep because the primal part of me needed to be there to protect them.
No, my sweet female, the lengths I’d gone to find out every little shred of information was just for you.
“Okay,” she whispered. “Why were you at my house tonight?” Her brows lowered again in confusion, and she looked around the room, as if it would give her answers. “Is it even still tonight? God, this is so insane.” She lifted her hand to rub her temple, her eyes closing briefly.
She fluttered her eyelids open and looked at me, an almost desperate expression on her face and deep in those gorgeous green eyes of hers. I found myself taking a step toward her, every part of my body wanting to do nothing but comfort her. It was a foreign feeling for me, emotions and actions that went against the very grain of the bastard I was. But they were there, front and center, my priority.
“Dawn will be cracking in a few hours. You haven’t been here very long.”
She exhaled as if that were a relief, and maybe it was. Maybe, to her, knowing she’d only been unconscious and in a strange place for a short while eased her panic.
“I was at your house tonight for the simple fact that I could, because I wanted to be close to you.” I saw the way her pulse jumped in her throat because of my words.
She licked her lips and averted her gaze. “Where am I, exactly?”
“My home.”
She looked at me then and lifted a brow. “Obviously. But where?”
I smirked. “Outside of Ryeka, on a fuck of a lot of acres of land, and out in the middle of nowhere.”
She nodded slowly and looked around, her focus stopping on the window that was covered by heavy drapes. But she wouldn’t see anything, even if it weren’t pitch-black and the drapes were pulled. I had heavy shutters installed over the windows, ones that came down automatically as soon as the fucking sun rose.
I’d bought this land decades ago, before the city had grown to the size it was, before they started putting businesses on every fucking street corner. Then I’d had this big-as-fuck house—too big for just me, if I was being honest—built. I’d installed the window shutters to protect me and my soldiers from that ball of fucking death.
Although I wouldn’t be burned to a crisp by the sun, not like how the movies and books portrayed my kind—with a fiery death—prolonged exposure to daylight would weaken us by the second, the minute, the damn hour until we were susceptible to injuries and wounds not healing and finally death.
I looked around my study, where I spent most of my time while here. This fucking beast of a house was more of a compound than a home, with security cameras all over the fucking place, even around the acres of woods that surrounded the house. If anyone stepped foot a mile away from this place, I’d fucking know it.
“How did you know to be at my house tonight, last night… whatever? How did you know those men would be there?” Her voice shook on the last part, her fear rising, the scent like burnt wood. “And who were those men? Why were they there?”
Just thinking about those fuckers made me want to kill them all over again, to tear their heads from their bodies for daring to make my mate feel as though she wasn't safe.
“Who were those men?” she asked again when I didn’t answer her the first time. Her voice was breathy, barely audible, her words laced with the pressure she was feeling right now. She probably hated it, loathed that I made her feel this way, that her body was betraying her. But she’d soon realize it wasn’t a betrayal, but her body, her soul, her very essence submitting to me, because she was mine and I was hers.
“They were humans, the bad kind, the kind I don’t want anywhere near you.” The truth was I didn’t want any men near her, not human nor Otherworlder. But she wasn’t ready to hear all of that. “They were after you because of me. You were just collateral, a way to get to me, because you’re mine.”
“Humans…” She licked her lips, and I was transfixed at the sight. “You keep phrasing things weird. Mates, humans, that I’m yours. What does that all mean?”
“What do you think it means?” I was being purposely evasive, getting off on going around in circles with her, because I knew the moment I said what was really hanging between us, she’d no doubt close off, a defense mechanism, because her mind wouldn’t be able to comprehend it right away.
A long moment passed as we stared at each other. “I think it means you’re dangerous.”
My smart, pretty little female.
“I’m very dangerous.” I wanted to move closer, be that predator who stalked her, getting off and becoming excited to watch her retreat, knowing at the end of it all she’d give in to me.
“The bodies,” she whispered instead of saying what she really wanted to, and she looked at me, eyes wide.
“If you’re looking for an apology for killing them”—I slowly shook my head—“I can’t give you that.” I took another step closer, a low growl leaving me at the thought of her retreating. “I’ll give you anything, everything, but I won’t give you that. In fact,” I murmured, my focus on her lips again, “I enjoyed ending them. I reveled in it.” It made the feral beast that I inherently was growl in anticipation. “They meant you harm, and for that, I’d kill them ten times over.” I bared my teeth. “I’ll destroy anyone or anything that tries to take you from me.”
But the truth was I hadn’t known they’d be at her place. I should have been more careful. I should have known with the Assembly coming out of the woodwork again, especially with them trying to take Cian and his mate down, the human fuckers were getting more daring. They were willing to take chances, even if that meant crossing me.
I took a step toward her, and I was proud that she held her ground. No one stood up against me, not the ones who wanted to live. But my sweet, vulnerable little mate who barely reached the center of my chest refused to back down in the face of a very real predator.
