“But it makes you mine, too?” she asked.
I’m already yours, I thought. Out loud, I merely confirmed with, “Yes.”
“So it’s a two-way commitment. Is that why you won’t bite me? Because you don’t want a mate? I mean, you don’t want me as your mate?”
Wow, how she’d turned this conversation around.
My lips parted without sound. Because I didn’t know how to answer. Never in my wildest dreams would I have anticipated having this conversation now, here, in London, outside a club. She had to be freezing, too, with the wintry temperatures settling in around us. Yet her cheeks remained a rosy red.
Because she’s a fae.
I wondered if she even realized her immunity to the chill surrounding us.
No, she was too consumed by the biting inquiry.
She thought I didn’t want to claim her. It was written in the uncertainty of her expression, the way her lower lip wobbled just slightly as if she expected my rejection.
How far we’d come in a month.
Hell, how far we’d come in the last hour.
She’d just tried to hit me ten minutes ago. Now she wanted me to mark her.
“I do want a mate,” I told her softly. “All fae males crave the bond, but it’s often one-sided. Our society—the Council—assigns royal pairings. Kols, for example, is betrothed to Emelyn Jyn. But they hate each other.”
Well, that wasn’t exactly true. Emelyn absolutely wanted to fuck Kols. However, her familial line was known for using physical persuasion as a way to manipulate their mates.
Fortunately, my brother thought with his brain more than with his dick.
“Oh.” Ella’s nose scrunched, her body stiffening. “Wait. That means you’re promised to someone already?”
“I am.” I lowered my arm from the wall, my palm wrapping around the back of her neck. I could already see the anger brewing in her gaze, the assumptions being made. I killed them with a statement I knew would either destroy our tenuous connection or strengthen it.
I really hoped for the latter.
“The Council assigned me to you, Ella. You are my betrothed.”
Chapter Sixteen
Ella
You are my betrothed.
Those four words reverberated in my head on repeat, my mouth opening and closing without sound.
A thrill ran down my spine, chased by a chill of reality.
“That’s why you’re here,” I managed to say on a breath. “That’s why you want to help me. The Council made you.”
He snorted. “I’m here because I want to be. Unlike my brother, I was provided with options for my mating. I chose you.”
I blinked. What? “When?”
“Six months ago.”
Okay… that was, well, unexpected. “Why?” I croaked out. He didn’t even know me then. Well, outside of running into me in an alley. That hardly even counted as an introduction.
“Why did I choose you?” he asked, his gaze searching mine.