Wild Beast Mate(24)

This burned. Because I did ask her for babies more than once. “We don’t need babies.”

She sighed, still refusing to look at me. “Of course not,” she said.

“I mean it.”

“Beast’s pairs breed babies. It’s what pairs do. It’s not so different from humans. Like Mom, and Dad’s other wives. I have twenty-three siblings and more aunts than I can count.” She laughed, a little too hysterical for my liking. “I really am a boy.”

“You’re not a boy.”

“Let me go.” A plea. “There’s no future for us. I have no purpose with you. Maybe the mating was a mistake, and you just don’t see it. You recognized a mate, but I’m not the same girl I was the day you saw me. Try to get another mate. Let me go, hm?”

Another mate. I ground my teeth and muttered, “You’re mine.”

“It’s too late.”

Yes, yes, it was late, and it wouldn’t have made a difference if she told me before. She’d suffered, and it changed her, ultimately changing how she viewed the world and her future with me. At eighteen, she had just started to live. Dear Mother, hear me, I will roast them alive for this.

For Dewlyn, life was an all-in or all-out kind of deal. You either lived to the fullest, did everything you wanted done, or didn’t live at all. If she were to love me? I snorted. All that crazy force would be mine. But until then, I had to work with the Dewlyn I’d made. No mistaking, I made this of us. Now, I would lift her up a little, fix her, if not fix us. Hopelessness was a terrible state of mind, and my mate felt as if she didn’t have a say in her own future. An illusion of freedom was better than nothing, and it would buy us some time.

All set on my plan, I commanded the House and started filling up the bath. The warm water ran down the pipe, lifting vanilla-honey bubbles in the air. I lit a giant lavender candle and drew down the blinds. Dewlyn sighed in relief, welcoming the darkness. After her suicide attempt, she’d come back and lived to hate me. So be it. Her life meant everything to me. We’d make it, or we wouldn’t. I wanted her to love me, but I had to keep her breathing, so I opted for what I did best.

I removed my black belt and placed it over the sink. The metal snap clinked against the white ceramic. I watched her while I stroked the leather. “Out there”—I jerked my head to the giant window—“did you sprain anything?”

She lifted her middle finger.

“That finger’s gonna cramp one day.”

“I got another one.”

“Don’t defy me!”

Dewlyn lifted her head, alert now.

Good. “I can’t forget the image of you hanging from the fence. I want to fucking burn every tree in the City Park. You could’ve fallen down that fence and broken your neck. You don’t take care of yourself. You think you’re invincible. Parachute thrills for sports is one thing. Hopping the fence for no fucking reason other than to piss me off is another.” Yup, that should do it.

“It’s not all about you, Vice.”

“No?”

“No.”

“I think it is. I think you don’t spend a single day without thinking about me. That’s why you follow me around. I think you tried to spare me from having to deal with the fact I’ll never have kids. So you took it upon yourself to shoulder all that pain. Eventually, you grew angry with me. That pisses me off. You want choices, but wouldn’t tell me anything so I could make mine.”

“You left me there.”

“I did. There’s an agreement, and you were a month shy of your birthday. So I did leave you. I couldn’t have known what would happen. That’s beside the point.”

Dewlyn stood, swayed on her feet. My hands flew out to catch her, but she slapped them away and steadied on her own.

I smirked at my sweet broken fire.

“Beside the point?” she spat.

“Ah-ha. I said that, didn’t I?” I stepped closer, bent my head, and inhaled the smell of her rising anger. That’s my girl. Don’t be sad, get mad. “You are selfish.”

“Oh, oh, oh no, you di’int.” She bounced from one foot to another.

“Selfish and a coward.”

“Ain’t a coward. Take it back.”

“Coward. You want me to get another mate? I’ll get another mate.” I walked out and slammed the door on her.

Sure enough, Dewlyn open the door. “I told you not to leave me. I begged you not to leave me!”

I spun around.

She ran into my chest, looked up, and kneed me in the balls. Damn, that shit hurt. My jaw tightened.

She came at me again.

I skipped, caught her leg, twisted her around, and picked her up. I walked us back to the bathroom and into the tub. I restrained her wrists at the small of her back. She turned her head around. Her brown eyes burned with fury, and my cock hardened. I bent so I could whisper at her lips. “Tell me what I want to hear, baby, and I’ll give you what you want. I know what you want, and I’ll give to you. I swear it.”