Page 23 of Firedrake Betrayal
I hadn’t wanted to look at her until I was sure I’d regained control of myself. Her muffled curse compels me to angle my head toward her.
Jade, who had been silently creeping toward the elevator, stops and turns to face me.
“Your eyes changed.” Her tone is so accusatory that I look away.
I resume my focus on the bright city lights in the distance. Releasing a heavy breath, I pull my hand from my pocket and massage my forehead. “My control is not as it should be. It will take time to become the man I was once before Atticus chained me. I won’t hurt you.”
It’s been a long time since I felt shame. If I ever did. The burn in my throat and my reluctance to meet Jade’s beautiful deep-green eyes hint at it.
Her steps move toward me, stopping two feet away.
She doesn’t tell me that she doesn’t believe me. She doesn’t need to. The gap she leaves between us speaks volumes.
I focus on the skyline I’d longed to see again. But like my hoard, the sight no longer brings me any joy. Only my mate does that.
For the first time in so long, I’m not alone. I have Jade. I have a mate and a child.
I have afuture.
Now she threatens to leave me.
I willneverallow that. She is mine.
“I need my family and I need my friends. I cannot stay here with you, Dominik. This is not my life,” she says.
“I could give you everything you could ever dream. My hoard would be yours. I could make you happy, and I would keep yousafe.” I speak without looking at her, hardening my voice and willing her to believe I mean it.
All she has to do is stay and I will give her the world.
“Thingsdon’t make me happy. They never have. People do, and all my people are back in Oklahoma.” Her voice is soft, but there’s a steel in it I don’t recall hearing before.
She does not know how strong a Kaida can be.Yet. But I do.
Do I tell her more when that knowledge will ensure she leaves me?
“You need me, Jade.” Now I look at her, absorbing her soft, dark beauty, her jewel green eyes. Mine. She is mine.
Her chin lifts. “No, I don’t.”
“There is so much I could tell you of your heritage.” I don’t mean to impose conditions on my knowledge. Or maybe I do.
Her eyes flash. “You left my father to die. I don’t care about my heritage. I just care about him.”
Again, I fight the need to look away.Is this shame or guilt?I saw an opportunity, and I took it. What man would let an opportunity to have the thing he’d always wanted pass him by?
“It was too late to save him. He was falling from the sky as I pulled myself out of the ruins of the compound. There was nothing I could have done.”
“But you could havetried. You just snatched me up and carried me away.”
“You are with child.Mychild. If Atticus knew, he would tear this city apart looking to claim what he has wanted for decades. It isnotsafe.”
“This child ismine,” she says fiercely, cradling a hand over her still-flat belly. “No one is taking it away from me.No one.”
Her pupils flicker red-yellow.
She’s descended from one of the most powerful lines in our history, and she has no idea how to use her powers. No idea about her heritage at all.
Perhaps I can use that for my benefit.
