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“Yes we should,” I hissed.
“But-”
“I found you, Fiona!” I nearly roared it, and she looked startled.
That little shudder of surprised fear in her hurt me more than I could bear. I wanted to touch her so badly but I worried that would only make things worse. I forced my voice lower, quieter, though not at all calmer and continued.
“I found you and I took you from the zeelk’s killing claws and now I will keep you,” I informed her with savage certainty. “You gave me your kiss and you gave me your cunt. Do not give me a taste of you, the sweetest taste that was ever upon my tongues, only to rip it away from me now!”
“I’m not!” she cried, looking stricken. “I don’t...”
“Tell me once,” I growled, desperation clawing at me, making me feel unsteady and afraid. “Tell me once and tell me true. Do you still want me?”
“Yes!”
Strangely, I felt no relief at her admission. Only dread, which I tried to shut down the same way I tried to shut down this entire event.
“Then there is no more discussion to be had.”
“Of course there is!” she exclaimed. “We need to... To figure out what would actually happen! Seriously, Dalk. What are you going to do if you get bonded to somebody else?”
“That will not happen.”
“But you don’t know for sure! You could wake up tomorrow and get summoned and end up with a bond to, I don’t know, Tilly! Or a Sea Sand woman from your tribe!”
“I do not want any of them the way that I want you.”
How could she not see that yet?
“But you would want them that way,” she countered, “and maybe even more, if you had the mate bond awakened.”
“I seriously doubt that,” I seethed. Feeling that strongly for someone, someone other than her, was beyond the realm of comprehension.
“Alright, well, what if somebody else comes knocking claiming they got a mate vision of me?” she asked, throwing her little hands onto her hips. “What then?”
I did not reply right away. I only breathed. Breathed and smelled blood and heard the screams of that faceless man as I threw him from the height of some unsurvivable ledge. Finally, knowing she would not accept mere silence, I told her flatly, “I do not think you want my honest answer to that question.”
“Of course I do!” she snapped instantly. “I wouldn’t ask you something if I didn’t want to hear the answer. What would you do if I got a different mate?”
I hesitated, but she had asked twice now, and I would answer honestly.
“I decided some time ago,” I said slowly and very clearly, “not long after you first kissed me, that I would kill any other man who tried to claim you. Whether he’d had a mate vision of you or not.”
The colour drained from her face so rapidly it looked like her skin had been replaced with bone.
“Alright,” she said weakly, “you were right. I didn’t actually want to hear that answer.” She swallowed, as if against a rising tide of vomit, then took a steadying breath and said, “See, but this is what I’m talking about. If it’s getting to the point where one of us is going to get hurt, or if somebody else’s life might literally be in danger, I don’t...”
“You don’t what?”
“I don’t see how we can go on like this! I’m scared that we could be falling in love and it’s only going to end in tragedy!”
Her hands flew out at her sides in a gesture of helplessness. Then she closed them into fists and let them fall.
“Listen to me, Dalk,” she said quietly, her face furrowed with emotion. “What do you think would happen if you killed a man just for having a mate vision with me in it? The Vrika and the Lavrika, their word is like law! If you killed someone because of that, I don’t even want to think about what would happen to you as punishment!”
Her voice splintered, as if with great pain, when she spoke of my punishment.
“And if you got your own vision of someone else and rejected it, what then?” she went on. “You could be exiled, just like Lerokan was! Not to mention leaving that poor other woman without a mate she might be waiting for!”
