And I… I just… went limp.
“Have you lost your fucking mind?” Kieran snapped.
“We’re your Elites,” Cillian replied. “Your life is ours to protect.”
“Not at the expense of your own,” the future Blood Sector King retorted.
“It’s done,” Lorcan replied, his voice deep and hypnotic to my senses. It made my head spin. One minute, I wanted to kill him, and now…
Now I want… I want something else entirely.
Never going to fucking happen, little killer,he said into my mind as he released me.
I blinked.What?My eyelashes fluttered, his stern features coming in and out of focus before me. Then I felt his presence in my head. In my heart.In my soul.
Just like him.
Just like Alpha Fare.
My heart stopped beating, my breath stilling in my chest.
We’re mates.
Lorcan and I are mates.
That’s what happens when an Omega bites an Alpha and he bites her back.Lorcan’s deadpan statement echoed through my thoughts as he played inside my head.
Stop,I demanded.
But he didn’t.
He was searching for something, exploring the depths of my mind while leaving his equally open for me to return the favor.
So I did.
If he wanted to rummage through my thoughts, I’d frolic through his.
Except the first one I found gave me pause. Because it immediately confirmed that he hadn’t been lying about not wanting a mate. The very notion of tying his soul to another was abhorrent to him. However, he did it anyway.
For Kieran.
His cousin.
They were as close as brothers, having survived over a millennium together. Lorcan had pledged his loyalty to Kieran forever ago, and he would do literally anything to guarantee the other man’s safety.
Including mating me.
Something he deeply regretted having to do but would live with the consequences as required.
I gaped up at him, shocked by the truth. Not because it upset me or even hurt my feelings, but because it seemed so abnormal.
Most Alphas took mates to satisfy their need to rut and procreate.
Not Lorcan. He had no desire to do such a thing.
Oh, he wasn’t innocent by any means. I could see glimpses of history in his mind, of previous Omegas he’d taken to bed. But none of them had meant anything to him. Not in thematingsense, anyway. He’d slept with Omegas out of obligation, to help them through their heat.
While always taking a form of birth control that would prevent offspring from occurring.