Page 156 of A Fate of Ice and Lies
I didn’t bother asking what she’d have to do to bind their connection because I already knew.Vith.But if she drank his blood and completed this bond, I’d have to share her soul with him.
“I didn’t know,” Teddy said. “I thought I was helping him.”
I wrapped my arms around her tighter. “I know,mo elma.You did nothing wrong.”
“I didn’t know either,”Nalari said through our joint connection.“It was my idea to give him your blood. I thought you were human. I didn’t realize . . . You have my apologies.”
“Are you certain he’d die if you don’t complete the bond?” I asked. “If it’s like the mate bond, denial of the bond or leaving it untethered would drive him mad, but it wouldn’t kill him.”
“I don’t want to be the cause of his pain, Elias,” she said.
I jerked back, studying her face. Her pretty, blue eyes glistened as if asking me to understand and accept this.
I swallowed past the thickness in my throat. “Do you want to complete the bond?”
“I don’t want him hurting.”
I rubbed the center of my chest, where my heart pounded in jealousy. She couldn’t mean to take his blood and bind her soul to him. Sibling or not, she was my soul-bound mate. My soul sought her soul, and I couldn’t share it. Not even with one of my best friends.
“He’s survived for years knowing his mate will never be his,” I said, thinking about the female who’d taken on anintended rather than accepting Brenton as her soul-bound mate. “He’ll survive this, too.”
“Brent has a mate?” she asked.
“Yeah, but that doesn’t matter right now.”
The way her eyes narrowed, I knew it did matter to her.
“He’s fine, Teddy,” I said, trying to reassure her. “She turned him away over a hundred years ago. He learned to live without her. He can figure out how to live without your end of the bond completed.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “That’s not right.”
I ground the back of my teeth. “What’s not right is you wanting to take another male’s blood.”
“I don’t want to take his blood.” Her words lashed out in anger. “The idea of it is disgusting. But I don’t want our friend suffering and dying when I can fix it. Can’t you see that?”
“No.”
“Damnit, Elias, you’re being stubborn for no reason.”
“No reason?” I wanted to roar at her words. “You want to drink from another male and bind your souls together. This . . . you’re my soul-bound mate.” I slapped an open palm across my chest. “Mine. Don’t ask me to share you with another male.”
Her features softened, and she placed her hand over mine. I wondered if she could feel how rapidly my heart beat.
“You’re mine, and I wouldn’t want to share you with anyone either,” she said.
She wound her arms around my neck, and I leaned down to hug her to me. Her fingers ran through my hair, and I nestled my face against her throat.
“I’m not asking you to share me with anyone,” she said. “I’m yours. Completely and solely yours. You own my heart and my soul. No part of me isn’t yours.”
Her words undid me. She was mine. I pressed hot, tender kisses along her neck.
She trailed her nails along the back of my neck before her fingers again ran through my hair.
“Please understand I don’t want Brenton. I don’t even want to take his blood,” she said. “But my actions caused this. I can fix it with a tiny drop of blood. And for the first time in three years, I’ll have someone who my soul recognizes as family. I haven’t had that since Mom died.”
I drew back to look at her. When I cupped her cheek, she leaned into my touch.
“This isn’t going to change us in any way,” she said. “I’m your mate, and you are mine. Our souls recognize each other.” She shrugged.
