Page 122 of Mate of a Monster

I blink, and the wall falls, my eyes widening as the space comes back into view.

Cracks run along the previously flawless outer walls, and the table has flipped over. Food, dinnerware and cutlery are now scattered across the floor. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out who’s responsible for the sudden mess. Legend stands in front of me, staring down at me with his eyes blown white.

I offer a weak wave. “Hi.”

He growls, gripping my arm and yanking me to my feet. “Why did you do that? You pushed me out. I didn’t–I couldn’t feel you. I thought—”

An unexpected flash of guilt runs through me. I’m not the only one dealing with some fucking trauma here.

He denied me, rejected my bond, and that shit fucking hurt—still does—but he felt my void too. He, too, was lied to, and manipulated, and hurt.

I was torn from him just as he was me. And he experienced the same panic I did back at the island, when I thought he threw me away again.

Only I did it on purpose. To protect him from the truth, sure, but didn’t the fucking outside view of what happened on the island just show him the same thing anyway?

I plant my hands against his chest and instantly, his shoulders loosen.

“Mate,” I call to him.

His brows dip a little, but the white in his eyes clears some, revealing a sorrowed blue. “Mate.” He speaks back through our mind link.

I sigh. “We’ve got a lot of making up to do, but I’m starting to think we always will. I’m going to fuck up more than I don’t, so just expect that. I don’t know how to do this.”

“Do what?” His fingers wrap around my wrists, tightening, pressing my hands harder against him.

“Don’t make me say it.”

“Say it.”

My jaw clenches and his lips twitch a little.

“Love, asshole. I don’t know how to love. I don’t know what it means and I don’t even know if that’s what I’m feeling. I will tell you one thing I know for certain: If I lose you, I will kill myself just so I can hunt you down and torture you. Do you understand?”

He closes the distance between us so his chest brushes mine. The rest of the room fades, falling into their own bullshit, but none of them matter. Nothing matters but this dickhead of mine.

“I understand, baby. And trust that I fucking love you too.”

“That’s not what I said.”

His hand dives into my hair, pulling until my head tips back and I’m looking up at him through my lower lashes. “That is exactly what you said.”

And then he tugs to the side, dipping his face into the crook of my neck.

His tongue slides along the column of my throat, and then—he bites.

His teeth break skin and the room detonates.

Pain. Pressure. Pleasure.

My bones seem to snap awake like a chain pulled taut between us, the bond roaring through my chest so violently my knees give, but Legend is there. His arms flying around my lower back, anchoring me to him as he sinks his fangs in deeper.

Heat floods the mark, bright and alive, like a damn wildfire tearing through every vein in my body. The magic in me reacts instantly, surging toward him as if it has been waiting centuries for this exact moment.

I think it has.

I gasp.

Power floods outward from the bite in a violent ripple, the air around us vibrates while the jewels at my temples blaze so hot they burn. I’m vaguely aware that the red and blue are shining bright, filling the room with colors of us.