Page 120 of The Path of Blood and Betrayals
“You own me.” I crumple, knees giving out.
Betrayal, hot and furious winds around my heart, drowning me in despair as tears drip down my chin. My strength leaves me and I hang in Kaden’s hands.
“If I didn’t, he would have,” he argues, eyes blazing, fingers digging into my arms. “You would have been tied to that animal. Do you know what they do to women here who they think are powerful? Theybreedthem until their bodies no longer function. They use them to make as many pups as they can, to ensure the power lives on in their clan.” He shakes me slightly, cradling me against his body.
“If I hadn’t laid claim on you, you’d be stuck with that future. Is that what you have wanted, Max? To be used for only what you can give him?”
“How is that any different fromyou?” I ask, tears clogging my throat.I can’t breathe.“You laid claim to me and even though I don’t know what that means, I feel it, in my heart. I’ll never be rid of you. Was this just a way to get to me—to use me?”
Taylay’s words echo in my mind, telling me not to trust him. That he only wanted my magic.
Is that what this is?
A muscle jumps in his jaw. “No, you’ll never be rid of me, pet. But as much as you hate meowningyou, you own me now too.”
Shoving me away, he glares at his sister, her face deadly pale. “Ready Wulf’s horses. We’ll head back to the Black Palace through the other side of the mountains.”
“And the guards?” Reid asks, voice quiet.
“Send a hawk to them. They’ll catch up.”
Fee steadies me, eyes pleading. “Kaden, you know doing this?—”
Kaden levels a glare at me as if this ismyfault. As if I was the one to chain him to me in the most intimate of ways.
That blooming love I felt for him is crushed under the weight of what he took.
My choice. My freedom.Gone.
I’m his now, just as he said I was.
“It’s done.”
A flaming arrow cuts through our group, landing onto the Mad Witch’s cabin. We drop to our knees, taking cover, as more rain down.
Glancing up beneath the cover of my hair, I catch sight of the invading army through the gates. Large black horses, crimson leathers glint against the morning sun as soldiers gallop through the entryway.
“Oh gods,” I groan, fingers digging into the dirt, terror coating my tongue.
The Crimson Army has finally come for the Phoka, and they’re here to burn the village to the ground.
Chapter 43
Kaden
Picking up Max, I toss her into Fee’s shoulder, pushing them further away as the arrows drop onto us, igniting the area.
I refuse to acknowledge Max’s hurt eyes.
If I do, I’ll crack.
Crack from the guilt, the pain there and the elation in my heart as the bond forms.
Right now, I need to focus on the ensuring battle and getting us out of here alive.
Hunkering behind one cabin, I have a viewpoint of the front gates. The army is coming in through the hollow which bottlenecks them. The gates surround us, built into the woods and stones as a natural fence. I don’t have to worry about attacks from the back but that doesn’t make this easy.
Unless we scale trees and climb ragged rocks—which we can, but Max isn’t Fae so she’ll slow us down—we’re trapped.
