He shook his head. “No.”
“For heaven’s sake, I could slap you!” she exploded. “This was your idea in the first place, remember! You angst around for days making sad puppy-dog eyes, and now you don’t want me?”
His expression shifted, that terrible calm cracking. His eyes burned gold. Releasing one of her hands, he caught the back of her neck in a hard grasp, pulling her close.
“I want you,” he breathed, deep and anguished. “With all my heart. But not like this. Not when you cannot choose me freely in return.”
“I am,” she insisted, even though it wasn’t true. “Cuan, I do.”
He leaned his forehead against hers, eyes closing. She closed her eyes too, holding back tears.
“Tamsin,” he said, and his voice broke on her name. “If Morcant had not come, if we were not in this desperate peril…you would not be making this offer. I know that you—that you care for me. And perhaps, if things had been different, you might even have chosen to mate me, of your own free will. But you are not choosing this freely. You do not truly want to bind yourself to me, not when it means tying yourself to my world as well.”
“It’s better than the alternative,” she whispered. She held onto him as though he might disappear if she relaxed for a single second. “I can’t just let you die.”
Aodhan cleared his throat, very pointedly. “Might I remind you two that other people do in fact exist? And are present in this very room, at this precise moment in time? A fact that is getting increasingly uncomfortable for at least one of the individuals concerned?”
“Shouldn’t mate.” Motley was a man once more. He perched on the edge of the bed, shoulders hunched. “Can’t mate. Not like this. Wrong, wrong.”
“Motley is right.” Cuan broke apart from her, stepping back. “The mate bond is a sacred magic. If we try to link our fates when our souls are shadowed by doubt and fear, the consequences could be dire. We must find another way to keep you safe.”
“I’m not running away and leaving you here to die,” Tamsin said fiercely. “You can forget that one.”
“Then we have but one possibility remaining. At least, I hope that we do.” Cuan’s gaze flicked from her to Motley. “I think it is time that you two told me everything.”