Page 100 of Mate of a Monster

Knight shifts. “The bond. It’s settling.”

“Settling?” I laugh, but the sound comes out cracked and hollow. “This feels like I’m being ripped open.”

“That would be the withdrawal.”

I force myself upright, fighting the pull in my chest long enough to meet his eyes. “Withdrawal from what?”

“From missing what should have been beside you all along.” Knight holds my gaze, a strange tension in his. “The fates don’t like to be fucked with.”

“Knight.” My voice drops so low my throat itches. “What did you guys do?”

He doesn’t answer.

He doesn’t answer.

The realization hits like ice water, and suddenly the haze in my mind clears just enough for fragments to surface. The ceremony. Arabella in white. Haide walking through that door and ready to burn the whole fucking building down around us if that’s what it took.

Her hand on my jaw.

The snap.

The screaming.

“You knew.” My throat stings as the words leave. “Both of you. You knew.”

Knight’s expression doesn’t change. “We were trying to protect you.”

“Protect me?”

The bond flares again, but this time the heat is different. Angrier. I feel her rage bleeding through the connection. It matches the fire climbing my throat. Violence.

“It was Creed, wasn’t it?” My voice rises with each word. “He tied me to that—”

I stop because the memory of Arabella’s touch makes my skin crawl, revulsion twisting through my gut so hard I nearly gag. How many times did I look at her and feel nothing? How many times did I force myself to believe she was my fucking cure and not my damn disease?

Months.

Months of feeling like I was losing my mind.

“You let me—” The accusation lands between us like a gauntlet thrown. “You watched me struggle with a bond that felt wrong every single day, and neither of you said a fucking word.”

Knight’s jaw tightens. “It wasn’t that simple.”

“Then explain it to me.” I step forward, teeth bared, and the air in the room shifts, pressure dropping as my magic rises unbidden. “Explain how betraying your own brother counts as protection.”

“Creed,” he pauses, “we did what we thought was necessary.” The balls on him to still stick by his actions. As if he wouldn’t tear the flesh off me with his teeth if we pulled this shit between him and London. “The kingdom needed stability. You were falling apart after you first got back to Rathe with her on your arm. She was the only connection to your failing powers we could see.”

“Holy fuck.” Memories spiral, twisting me into knots that will never be untied.

Knight continues, voice vibrating in my head. “I didn’t agree with what Creed put in motion, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t understand why. Creed made a decision to save you with the information he had at the time. Father would have done the same.”

“Do not bring him into this,’ I seethe. “Creed made a decision about my life with false information.”

“He made a decision about all our lives.” Knight’s voice rises to match mine. “You think you were the only one affected?”

“He put a stranger in my head and you helped him!” My fist slams into the stone wall. “Let me believe I was just a game to the girl who I—” I cut myself off. Never in my life had I known betrayal could burn so badly. I had everything I never knew I wanted, and they made me think it was all a lie.

And I blamed her.