Page 40 of Ironling
“Are you sure she’s your mate?”
Hakon’s blood ran cold.
“She’s not my mate,” he forced through his lips.
Orek huffed, obviously unmoved. “That’s why you’re standing here glaring like you want to attacka fae. And growling louder than your dog.”
Hakon realized only then that his chest shook with the heavy vibrations of a growl. He bit down on the sound, muffling it, but his beast wouldn’t totally relent. His throat ached with the strain of keeping it inside.
“I didn’t know if I had a beast myself, being halfling,” Orek told him. “It was dormant for the most part. Until the night I walked into a supply tent and found Sorcha.”
The words cast their spell, trying to lure Hakon’s attention away from Lady Aislinn and the fae. He heard the warning, and worse the truth, ringing in Orek’s admission.
He knew what danger was about to come.
“It knew I couldn’t leave her there. It knew I couldn’t let her travel home alone. It knew she was the one I wanted. Didn’t matter how I tried to stop it, the beast knew. Sounds like your beast knows, too.”
“She’s not my mate,” Hakon repeated, for himself as much as for Orek. The words grated against his throat.
“Not yet. But know, my friend, that once it’s begun, it cannot be stopped.”
“I know.” That’s why he had to forget his foolish infatuation. There were many lovely women in Dundúran—any would be a better choice, a safer choice than the heiress of the Darrowlands, a woman he would never, could never have.
He wanted a good life, a simple life, one filled with family. He didn’t want intrigue or complication.
Yet I want her.
Except he’d never be accepted as her mate. It may have been fine for Sorcha, the daughter of a knight and yeoman, but the chieftain’s daughter? Never.
He was stupid for even entertaining the thought.
“I know what hell it is, for the mate-bond to go unrequited. Whatever you choose, decide now. You must be sure.”
Hakon could feel the tendons of his neck pressing against the skin as he clenched his jaw closed, keeping back the roaring frustration.
Fucking fates, it wasn’t supposed to be like this!
Everything inside him, all his hopes and dreams and aspirations, roiled beneath the onslaught of a beast that was already sure. He felt himself ripping in two, between two desires, two fates, and worried that he stood on a precipice too high and dangerous to leap from.
For what could truly await him if he leapt? Nothing ended withheras his mate, safe and comfortable in the homestead he’d built for her.
That dream would never be.
So she can’t be your mate.
The truth sliced him down past the marrow, into his very spirit. His heart cracked under the strain.
Hakon watched in a daze as Lady Aislinn and Allarion came to some sort of agreement. The fae escorted her back to their party, and with a final bow to Sorcha, he leapt onto the back of Bellarand in one graceful arc of his cloak.
“My lady,” he intoned, and then the unicorn turned toward the forest.
No one spoke until the two had long since disappeared between the trees.
Sorcha blew out a breath. “Well, that was something.”
“What did he want?” Hakon asked, unable to help the desperate bark of his tone.
He could feel everyone staring at him, but he didn’t care. He needed the answer like his next breath, the unknowing crawling over him like biting ants.
