Page 99 of The Hunted

Not that he needed her to.

He just couldn’t pretend anymore.

Not like his father and the kingdom needed him to.

Nothing would be like it once was.

Not after her.

“And what does it mean, hmm? What does …” His own trembling hands waved between them. “What does this mean now?”

“Don’t you feel it? Don’t you hear—”

“All the time,” he snapped, the invisible pull between them dragging him halfway across the space in a blink. He only needed a few more steps, and he would reach her, but he forced himself to stop. “All the fucking time!”

“That’s what it is. That’s what it means.”

“For how lo—”

“Forever. That’s what mates are.”

He hated that.

Gods.

Something else loved it even more.

The emotions slapped back and forth inside him like a whip cracking over every inch of his soul. She’d done this—she’d bound them. He couldn’t be without this woman, and he constantly thought about killing her, too.

What had she done?

Nothing felt right or true.

And yet, nothing felt wrong or false, either.

Another thought drifted through his mind, sharp and cutting. Making his insides clench and sting and bleed as it echoed through his blood.

“You’re mine,” he said quietly.

Arelle tipped her head up slightly, those violet eyes of hers flashing with the storm behind him, and the truth they could no longer escape. “And you’ll always be mine.”

“Mine.”

“Yes.”

“And now, you’ll let me do anything to you, won’t you? Hurt you, take care of you … send you away, or keep you with me. Love you, hate you. Because you’re mine. To do with what I want or not. That’s what this,” he said, a fist hitting against the middle of his chest, “means, doesn’t it?”

“If it’s here, Arelle,” he added, taking those few steps to her slowly and painfully until their noses touched and his fist pushed against the spot over her heart, “then you feel it there. You can’t ignore it either.”

“I can—I have.”

“Before,” he returned.

She didn’t lie.

“Before you caught me.”

“Why?”