“Nathan, stop!” Hindered by blindness and the sheet wrapped around her nakedness, Mira scrabbled in frustration, finally laying her hand on the massive form hunched over Kellan on the pine plank floor of the bedroom. She grabbed a fistful of his form-fitting combat shirt and yanked, trying to pull him away. “Nathan, it wasn’t Kellan who blinded me. I did it myself. Damn it, listen to me. You have to stop this right now!”
The pummeling slowed, then halted as Nathan’s bulk shifted beneath her hold on him. She felt the heat of his gaze on her face and knew that his eyes had to be fully transformed—blazing hot with amber light and rage. His breath was sawing out of him, rough and heavy. Realizing just how furious he was—how deadly violent—Mira understood that Nathan could have killed Kellan then and there if he’d truly meant to. He could have killed him outside a few minutes ago, before she’d even known he was there.
“Let him up, Nathan. Kellan won’t ask mercy of you, but I will.” She searched for Nathan’s face with her free hand, an inelegant movement that made him hiss a dark curse.
“Ah, fuck, Mira. Look what he’s done to you.”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “No, Kellan hasn’t done anything. He tried to help me. He gave me his blood—”
“Jesus Christ.” Nathan scoffed. His voice turned away from her then, and she knew he was looking at Kellan. “You wait all this time to come back into her life, only to ruin it by shackling her to you with the blood bond?”
“I love her,” Kellan said. Mira heard him coming up off the floor, felt his warmth as he drew close to her. His hands came down light on her shoulders, comforting and strong. “I will always love her, no matter what fate has to say about it.” His mouth pressed against her temple, tender and sweet. “I love you, Mira. More than anything else in this world or the next.”
She knew that. Deep down, she knew he meant every word. But here he was, shattering her heart.
He was letting go.
“You promised me,” she murmured, closing her eyes against the pain. “You said you wouldn’t let me go.”
“Ah, Mouse.” Another kiss, this one landing gently on her eyelid. His voice was a rough whisper, low and intimate, thick with emotion. “Letting go of you is the last thing I ever want to do. If there was a way to turn this around, believe me, I would.”
As Kellan soothed her with tender words of good-bye, elsewhere in the Darkhaven came the muffled sounds of infiltration and struggle. Deep, familiar voices commanding Kellan’s crew to cooperate with their arrest and no one would get hurt.
Boots thundered heavily down the hallway toward the bedroom.
“You lied to me,” Kellan said to Nathan. “You said you came alone.”
Nathan grunted. “I wasn’t about to leave anything to chance. As you told me outside, this meeting you instigated tonight was about ensuring Mira’s well-being. We had to make sure she’d come out of this safely too.”
“Mira.” Nikolai’s low growl came toward her from the bedroom’s now-open doorway.
“Daddy?”
She couldn’t help herself from falling into his arms as he strode inside and pulled her into him for a tight embrace. She knew the instant he looked at her face—the instant he saw her clouded eyes. His snarl was fierce and animalistic, a lethal predator about to spring on the interloper who had wounded one of his young. “Son of a bitch. Fuck the arrest, I’ll kill the bastard—”
Before Mira could say anything, Nathan stopped Nikolai with words alone. “She’s bonded to him. Hurt Kellan, and you hurt her too.”
“Is this true?” Niko asked her sternly. “Did you drink from him?”
“We’re mated,” she replied, clutching the sheet tightly around her under the cold blast of Niko’s fury. “Our bond is complete.”
The warrior’s answering curse was vicious, rolling off the surrounding walls. “Get him out of my sight before I take his head where he stands.”
Kellan didn’t resist as movements indicated he was being taken into Order custody. Mira wished she could see his face. She needed to see him. Could not stand the idea that she might never look upon him again.
“Come on, baby,” Nikolai said, wrapping her under the protective shelter of his arm. “Let’s find some clothes for you and get you out of here. It’s all over now. Let’s get you home.”
But it wasn’t over.
Mira walked with him numbly, holding on to keep from stumbling as he slowly guided her out of the room.
For her, nothing was over yet. She walked in silence, having no voice to tell her father that once they arrived in D.C., the worst of her ordeal would be only beginning.