“You think I’m trying to fight a battle for you?” Seriously? Testy vampire was testy. “I’m trying to save you! Ronan, the magic inside of you is feeding on your anger; can’t you see that? You’re only accelerating the process by giving in to that aggression. I’m trying to save you, damn it! Hanging around and waiting for a fight isn’t going to do us a damned bit of good.”
He raked his shaking fingers through his hair and let out a measured breath. Every muscle in his body rippled with tension, pulled taut and hard as granite. His chest heaved and his lip pulled back in a feral snarl revealing the wicked points of his fangs. “You are tethered to me, Naya. Mine. Any male who thinks to claim you is going to meet a violent and bloody end.”
“Do. Not. Treat me like I’m a possession!” Naya snapped. “Who is Siobhan, Ronan? You seem so bent out of shape that another male would claim me as his, but the words from your own lips suggest that you might not be as free as you’ve let on, either.”
His jaw flexed as he gnashed his teeth. “When did I speak of her?”
Naya’s question seemed to drain some of the fire from Mister Intense and High-Handed’s commanding tone. Tears prickled at Naya’s eyes, but whether from anger or hurt she didn’t know. It shouldn’t matter to her if Ronan had pledged himself to someone else. It did, though. Gods, it did.
“Never mind,” she said, defeated. “Let’s just go. I’m weak and I need to meditate and center my energy. And I need to discharge the dark magic from my dagger.”
Ronan stood immobile, a deep furrow creasing his brow.
“Please.”
She could leave him here to his fate, but that’s not what she wanted. As angry as Naya was with him, there was still that part of her that couldn’t bear the thought of being separated from him. Long moments passed as they stood in the surf, the tide rising up to meet their feet. He let out a long ragged sigh and started toward the car.
Relief flooded her. Gods, she was so lost to him that she’d rather argue with him for the rest of the night than spend a single moment apart. There was still so much between them that needed to be settled. So much about him that she didn’t know. She just hoped that she’d get the chance before the magic that influenced him took what was left of the male who claimed to be her mate.
CHAPTER
18
Ronan slammed the door with enough force to take it off the hinges, stalking through Naya’s living room as though he had someplace to go. Gods. He had nowhere to go. No idea how to find Chelle so he could get out of this miserable place. Away from her. The tether that bound them pulled taut and Ronan wished he could take a blade to it. Sever it. Free himself from the inescapable want that was slowly eating him alive.
The rational side of him knew that she didn’t understand. She wasn’t a vampire. Naya didn’t feel the tether in the same way that he felt it. But the irrational side of him didn’t give a fuck-all about that. She’d given her body to him. Her blood. And when push came to shove, she’d tried to get him to run and hide like he was some sort of fucking coward. As though he were in the wrong for laying claim to what was rightfully his.
She was his mate!
The past twenty-four hours had passed in a flurry of emotion and Ronan’s world refused to stop spinning. Neither of their tempers had cooled on the drive back to Naya’s house, and if anything, they were simply looking for reasons to perpetuate a fight. Was that better than the alternative? Of Ronan coming clean with her and admitting that he’d trothed his body to another female and sealed the bargain with blood? Christ. How could he have been so stupid as to ramble on about Siobhan while his mate offered her vein to replenish what the damned foreign magic had stolen from him? Magic that turned people into demons, no less.
That creature could have killed her. Would have had she been out hunting alone. The energy she had expended to kill the thing had dropped her unconscious onto the sand. She would have lain there until someone had the good sense to look for her or another creature came to finish her off. How could her own people risk her life so callously? Ronan might have been angry with her. He might have wanted to shake some sense into her. But ultimately he wanted nothing more than to protect her. To keep his mate safe from harm, and that included her own kin.
“I want an audience with your chieftain.” Ronan kept his voice to below a shout, but barely. “You’re all living in a bubble, Naya, and it’s about to burst.” If the Sortiari got wind of the goings-on in Crescent City, it would only be a matter of time before they intervened. Those bastards didn’t take prisoners. They wiped out entire species. The Bororo might have wanted the world to think they were gone, but the Sortiari would make it a reality if it fit into their agenda. “There is no way—none—that you can fight whatever this is on your own.”