Page 319 of Primal Bonds

He unbuckled his seatbelt and hers with shifter-fast speed and dragged her toward him so that she lay half over the console.

“The hell I don’t want you.” His fingers dug into her shoulders. “If it was up to me, we’d be halfway across the country, looking for a place to make our own den away from both our clans. But I’m the alpha. The clan needs me. Before I took over, we almost lost everything. You know how many elders we have?”

She shook her head mutely. Hurting for him. Hurting for herself.

“Five—three women and two men. Other than them, no one older than forty survived the Darktime. I lost my mom and dad. Jace lost both his parents and his only sister. And the list goes on and on. That man I saw last night?” His throat worked. “He was captured and tortured for close to a year just for being my friend. So don’t tell me I don’t want you. It’s not a question of what I fucking want.”

He kissed her. A hard, fierce kiss, his arms clamped around her.

She brought her hands up, instinctively stroking, soothing.

He groaned and tore his mouth from hers. His grip on her loosened. He brought his forehead to hers.

“I can’t turn my back on them,” he rasped. “And they’d never accept you.”

“It’s okay,” she managed to say, even though her heart had fractured into jagged shards. “I understand.”

“The only way we can be together is if we keep sneaking around like this. Just say the word, and I’m there. But do you want a man who can never claim you? And what about your family, your clan? Do you really think Dion would accept me as your mate?” His laugh held zero humor. “God’s cat. The man would probably try to carve off my balls if he found out we spent even one night together.”

She shook her head, but in her heart, she knew he was right. A truck rumbled past, rattling their windows, but inside the car, the only sound was the harsh scrape of their breathing.

She pushed away from him. His hands tightened for a second as if he wanted to keep holding her, but then they opened, and she knew it really was over.

Adric regarded her moodily. “I’m not going to say I’m sorry. Last night was…special. I’ll be damned if I regret it.”

She pressed her lips together so he wouldn’t see them trembling. Lifted her chin. “I didn’t ask you for an apology.” Returning to her seat, she fumbled blindly for the seat belt.

“I’ll take you back.”

She latched the belt and sat back. “Thank you.”

Back at the rest stop, Adric turned off the engine. “One thing you can count on. I’m not going to die. He is. So stop worrying.”

She just shook her head.

“So.” He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. “Take care of yourself—okay?”

“Yeah. Sure.”

She reached for her canvas bag. Got out of the car. Shut the door.

Moving on automatic, because if she let herself think, the sobs locked in her chest might spill out.

Adric accompanied her to her car. After she unlocked the door, he reached around her and opened it. He didn’t say goodbye, just touched her cheek and then closed the door for her. But he tailed her out of the rest area and up I-95. Making sure she got safely back to Grace Harbor, because that’s who he was.

She watched through her rearview mirror as he followed her off the exit and then turned south toward Baltimore.

Her stomach was a hard, hurting knot. She pressed a fist to it and aimed the car for home.

Adric drove the thirty-five miles to Baltimore, foot heavy on the gas pedal, radio blasting. Just let the cops pull him over. Right now, he’d welcome the chance to pound on someone.

With every additional mile he traveled from Rosana, something inside him unraveled. Like his heart was attached to hers by some invisible thread, and with each mile, that wanting, needy organ was being shredded and left behind.

Mine.

His fingers tightened around the steering wheel. Her scent was still in the car, on him. Driving him insane.

He’d meant every word he’d said to her. The two of them together just wouldn’t work.

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