THE AWAKENING

Chapter-22-

She felt the invisible bond between them tighten and she gave into the realization that she was helpless to stop what was happening between them.

And a small part of her that was growing larger by each day, didn’t care. If only Tieran felt the same.

As the haze lifted and their sexual hunger abated, Cassandra expected Tieran to split as quickly as possible but he surprised her by staying, although he seemed agitated, as if he didn’t know why he wasn’t leaving. “I was wrong to blame you for what has happened,” he admitted, breaking the silence. He climbed to his feet and pulled his jeans on.

His dark hair was beautifully mussed and his abdomen muscles stood out in hard relief against the landscape of his bronze skin.

To look at him was to think of, and desperately want sex and the fact that Cassandra had laid claim to him was a secret thrill even if she wasn’t ready to admit that fact.

“Which part?” she asked.

“All of it,” he said. “I realize you didn’t ask for any of this either. But you’re right about us needing to work together to be good parents. The future of the world rests in your belly. We have a responsibility to work together as a team.”

Her hopes fell and she couldn’t help the bitterness that followed. Work together as a team? Okay, coach. Did he talk to his beloved Serra like that? Or did he wrap his arms around her tenderly when he made love to her?

Thus far, Tieran had simply fucked her like a maddened beast (which she loved) but she could tell he was reserving the sweetest part of himself for someone else and it killed her.

“That’s not enough,” Cassandra said bluntly, surprised that the words popped from her mouth.

“What do you mean?”

Cassandra sent him a hard look but beneath the anger bled a weeping wound of hurt and rejection. “I want more from you. If I’m being asked to sacrifice everything I’ve ever known for a new world that I don’t understand in the least, you’re going to have to stop fighting what you feel for me. I can sense it. You’re holding back, refusing to give into the feelings that are binding us together.”

“What I feel isn’t of my own choice. I am biologically primed to want you because you are my mate now that we’re bonded but my heart belonged to another before you came.”

She winced, hating his bald statement for its stark honesty. She supposed she ought to be appreciative of the fact that he wasn’t going to lie to her just to save her feelings.

Cassandra had always preferred brutal honesty to gentle falsehoods. Well, she had until that moment. Now, she was rethinking that philosophy because the slap of that fucking statement had stung like a bitch.

Tieran quieted, regret in his gaze for hurting her. “Cassandra…I do not wish to hurt you. I will always protect, respect, and care for you but do not hope that I will ever love you. That part of myself left the day Serra was forced from her home to make room for the woman I was supposedly destined for — you.”

Tears sprung to Cassandra’s eyes and she didn’t try to hide them. Well, wasn’t that a bowl of rotten cherries?

He may as well as said, Hey, I like you enough to bang boots but you’re not good enough to meet the fam. Sorry, babe. That’s just the way it is.

How was she supposed to take that kind of admission? Was she supposed to thank him for being so honest? Or maybe start sobbing like a pinched baby because she’d inadvertently been given the First

Place Loser award for being second best? Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

Screw. That.

Cassandra jumped from the bed and stalked past him, going to the door.

His gaze narrowed at her action. “What are you doing? You’re naked. You can’t go out like that.”

“Says who?” she demanded, her hand on the doorknob. “I release you from your commitment, Tieran. I told you I wanted more. Being second best has never been my style. I will find someone else who will be over-the-moon-happy that I am their Number One girl. I am no one’s consolation prize. Got it?”

“If you take one step outside that door—”

“Don’t threaten me,” she cut in with a mean growl.

He advanced, his scowl deepening. “Cassandra.”

“Don’t tell me what to do. You’re not the boss of me. No one is. I’m the Prophesied One, not you. I choose my mate, not the other way around. Got it?”

“That’s absurd.”

“Yeah?” Cassandra raised one brow, taunting. “Watch me. I’m tired of everyone telling me what I can and can’t do. So far as I can tell…the Mother Goddess broke the mold when she made me.”

Cassandra flung the door open and started to cross the threshold but Tieran’s grip was on her arm before she could take another step.

His eyes flashed dangerously but a vicious growl ripped from Cassandra’s throat that startled him. Her skin prickled with scratchy heat and her heartrate kicked up as her body prepared to change.

She recognized the signs this time and she welcomed the split of bone and skin as she transformed into the white, blue-eyed werewolf.

With a howl, she bounded past the shocked people in the house and ran full-tilt out the door.