Page 407 of Primal Bonds

He let his mouth curve. “But to us, my lady, war is food.”

Chapter 35

Adric’s stomach dropped. He sprang to his feet. “You—no.” He paced away, then back again. “You could be wrong. Everyone knows the Sight is unpredictable.”

Rosana spread her hands. “I’m not sure,” she admitted, “but my Gift is strong, and I’ve touched you over and over in the last few days without even a glimmer—except for this gut feeling that if you came here alone, you’d die.”

He stared down at her, lungs jerking. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go down. If he died, Rosana was supposed to be safely back at Rock Run, free to mate with some other male.

My fate is tangled up in yours now.

He’d learned control in a hard school. But for the first time in a long time, rage got the upper hand. Rage at his uncle. Rage at Langdon and his thrice-damned son, Tyrus. Rage at the river fada who’d raped his sister, and at the members of Adric’s own clan who’d set the whole thing up.

But most of all, rage at the world that wouldn’t let him have the woman he wanted more than life itself.

He turned, slammed the side of his fist against the stone wall. Rosana flinched.

He exhaled, forced himself to speak calmly. “We can’t bond. Not yet. I—you know why.”

She jumped up as well. “I’m not asking you to choose me over Marjani,” she said in a subvocal voice. “I’d never ask that. But what if you’re wrong? What if the mate bond is the only thing that can save you? And don’t forget what I Saw—you could set off another Darktime.” She quoted her own words: “The prince will destroy your clan from the inside out.”

“Not if I kill the motherfucker first,” he snarled.

“Don’t you see?” She grabbed his arms. “It could mean you, not him. That you dying is what sets it off. You’re the glue holding your clan together. If they lose you, the Darktime will rise again.”

He stared at her, arrested. Could she be right? But if she was, where did that leave his sister?

He shook her off and backed away. “Marjani could lead in my place.”

“Could she? Or would there be another series of challenges? Your clan is finally getting its shit together. Do you want to risk that? All I’m asking is that you stop fighting the mate bond. Maybe this is meant to be. Together, the two of us are stronger than either of us alone.”

“Damn it, Rosana. This isn’t your fight, it’s mine.”

“It’s mine now.”

He growled and dropped onto the bench. He leaned forward, head clutched in his hands.

She sat beside him. Her hand came to his nape, stroking in that way that made his cat want to lay its head on her lap and purr. He stiffened his spine against the temptation.

“I love you for so many reasons,” she murmured.

“But?” There was always a but.

“No but. That you love your sister so much…” She rested her cheek against his. “It just makes me love you even more. I want you to know that.”

He squeezed his eyes shut. Inside, the mate bond battered invisible fists against the barrier he’d erected.

He slid down the bench, away from her and that petting hand. “He came to me, you know. Your brother.”

“Dion?”

“Yeah.”

Her brows snapped down. “When?”

“The other night. After we went to Lewes.”

He distinctly heard her teeth grind together. “What did he say?”

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