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And he couldn't help but think that finally he belonged to someone. Breeds weren't born, they were created. They belonged to the labs. They were no more than expensive tools and experiments, until their escapes. After that, they belonged to no one. They were without family, in many cases they were without friends. They were part of the pack they had trained in, but true belonging went deeper. It went to the soul. And his soul belonged to Grace. But he was beginning to realize that perhaps Grace really didn't want to belong to him. He stared at the rock in his hand, then, feeling the bite of that knowledge as it tore at his heart. Walking away from her would destroy him. It would mean that there truly was no place in the world that he would fit, and he didn't want that to be true.
He had fought for ten years to make the world safe for Breed mates. With each year, the knowledge of the mating might not be publicized, but the knowledge of the danger to them was. The world was standing behind them, and in several cases where Breed mates would have been kidnapped, regular citizen's had raised the alarm.
The Council Directorate was finding it harder with each successive year to strike against known, registered Breeds. They were too well known in the communities they had come into. They were well liked and considered members of the community. Even the pure blood societies were reportedly finding it harder to gain members outside the fanatical few.
There was still a long road to travel in making peace with society at large. And there were still too many Breeds dying needlessly. But inroads were being made.
Now, if only Matthias could make his own inroads.
Straightening, he turned his head to the cabin, eyes narrowing, as Grace stepped out onto the porch. She hadn't tried to run yet, and he had given her every chance to do just that. She stood just outside the door, staring at him across the clearing. She wore a stretchy, snug top with thin straps and a pair of cutoff jeans. Her silky hair fell around her face to her shoulders in several natural shades of blonde. Even from here he could see the somber reflection in her soft eyes. Breakfast and lunch had been so silent between them that it weighed in the air like a heavy fog. He had left the cabin to escape it, to escape the pain he knew he was causing her. Matthias felt his body tighten as she stepped from the porch and moved down the steps before coming toward him. Her steps were slow, the air of reluctance that hovered around her had his teeth clenching. He dropped the rock he held back to the ground, shoved his hands in his pockets, and waited for he
r. He felt as though he had waited for her all his life, only to watch her slip from his life once he found her.
"You're not a very conscientious kidnapper," she informed him, as she stepped up to him and brushed the hair back from her face. "You don't even watch me properly. " His lips twitched, as amusement flooded him for a brief second.
"I'm new at this," he bantered back. "You'll have to forgive me my mistakes. " She sniffed in apparent disdain. "I think I'd drop it, if I were you. Its one of those things you either have a talent for, or you don't. "
"Perhaps you're right. I'll give it some thought. "
Silence descended between them once again. Matthias was forced to curl his fingers into fists to keep them in his pockets, to keep from touching her. She had no idea about the forces that were beating inside him. The hormonal changes in his body were ripping him apart, the taste of the aphrodisiac filling his mouth reminding him by the second that she was his mate.
It would take so little to ensure she never left him, he thought. So little. A lick to her neck as she slept, perhaps. The scrape of his canines against her skin. A kiss. Just the softest kiss, and he would have her forever.
Her body anyway. But it wasn't just her body he wanted, it was her heart, her woman's spirit, and her capacity to love. He didn't want more of her condemnation, or her hatred. And she would hate him, if he stole the choice from hershe would never forgive him. And he would never forgive himself. Prison would be preferable to that. Or death.
"Why did you target me to get to Albrecht?" she finally asked, though now her voice was devoid of anger.
"It gave me an excuse to get close to you," he admitted. "I had been watching several of the hotel's employees. You were just one of them. But you were the one that fascinated me. " Being honest with this woman about such things would never be easy. She looked out toward the lake for long seconds, following his stance and shoving her hands into the pockets of her cutoffs.
How forlorn she looked. He would give anything, everything to go back and change that moment that she had seen him kill.
"I was falling in love with you, Matthias," she finally whispered.
"I know. " He nodded. "I already love you, Grace. " And he did. He loved her so much it was ripping his guts to pieces.
"I've never loved before," he told her quietly. "It wasn't hard to realize what you meant to me. You made me laugh, you lightened my soul. "
"And you set out to destroy it. " Anger flashed in her gaze. Mathias sighed bleakly. Perhaps he should just leave, give her a chance to think, to consider being without him. But God help him, he was terrified to do that.
"I won't explain my actions again. " He shook his head before staring up at the deep blue of the sky.
When he looked back at her, she was watching him somberly once again.
"Go back into the cabin, Grace," he finally told her. "Or work in your flowers or whatever it is you do on vacation. You're straining my control. "
A frown snapped between her brow, and her eyes darkened in anger. "I can't relax. I can't do that while you're kidnapping me. Maybe someone will return the favor on your next vacation. "
"I would first have to experience such a thing," he growled. He had never had a vacation. There was still too much to do. There were ten council directors still free, funding the pure-blood societies and training them to kill Breeds. There were trainers still at large and coyote soldiers still lurking. Who had time for a vacation?
"You've never had a vacation?" Disbelief colored her voice. As though it were yet another crime that she marked against him.
"I wasn't taught vacations in the lab," he snarled. "Remember?"
"As though that's an excuse. " She sniffed with such ladylike disdain that she fascinated him.
"Grace, I'm going to warn you one last time," he ground out between clenched teeth. "Remove yourself from me, or you are going to regret it. "
"It's my property. You remove yourself from me . " Her hands went to her hips, as her little chin tilted stubbornly. "I did not kidnap you, Matthias. It was the other way around. "
