“Oh, be assured that I already have,” I cut in, adoring the way his skin turned red in response. “But I would never hurt her.”
“And you just expect me to believe you? To rely on you to keep her safe?”
“Yes,” I said, replying to both questions. “She’s my mate, Kolstov. I may enjoy taunting her, but I’d never let anyone or anything hurt her. Why else would I have showed up in the LethaForest? It certainly wasn’t for a little late-morning stroll. That’s for damn sure.” I took a long, necessary sip of my drink, adoring the way the liquid burned the back of my throat.
Kols finally relented with a sigh, his head bobbing back and forth in defeated agreement. “I’m going to fucking regret this.”
“You absolutely are,” I agreed, but I wasn’t so much referring to trusting me as I was binding himself to Aflora. He would definitely have moments of regret, followed by sweet moments of reward that made it all worth it.
Or maybe that was just my fate, not his.
Time would tell.
“Zeph went to find someone who can help us hide the bonds,” he informed me, his tone low. “Until we can figure out how to move forward, we need to hide this from the Council.”
“And they call me the rebel,” I murmured, amused.
“This isn’t a fucking game,” Kols snapped.
“Everything in life is a game to someone,” I returned, stepping around him to enter the living room.
“Does her life mean nothing to you?” he demanded, his harsh tone causing me to pause midstep. “Do you not realize what will happen to you if something happens to her?”
I glanced over my shoulder to meet his gaze. “I don’t care what happens to me,” I admitted, my voice a hush of sound that seemed to slap him across the face. “But I do care what happens to her. Which is why she’s staying here tonight. I’ve given you two months with her, Kolstov. It’s my turn to care for her in my own way. You can have her back—unharmed—tomorrow.”
I didn’t bother giving him anything else, just shadowed back to my room and the beauty resting in the center of my bed. If he opted to stay and listen, that was on him.
What I wanted to do now had nothing to do with Kolstov or Zephyrus or the Council or anyone else.
It all centered around Aflora.
Just as it had since my first bite.
I set my glass down on my nightstand, pulled off my shirt, and crawled into the bed beside her. A few muttered words released her from the sleeping spell, allowing her beautiful blue eyes to open.
Palming her cheek, I leaned in to run my tongue along the seam of her mouth. She opened for me as I knew she would, her mind still caught in the land of fog and dreams and her memories convincing her this might be a fantasy more than reality.
I could so easily take advantage of her in this state.
But I wouldn’t.
I wanted to earn her trust in a magical sense, not necessarily in a traditional one. I desired her soul. Her heart. Her everything.
She was nowhere near ready to give me more than physical touch, and that was fine. We had time. We’d work up to what I really craved. She might initially despise me for it, but in the end, she’d fall for me.
Which was all part of the fun.
A Quandary Blood needed challenges and puzzles and riddles. I offered them to her in spades, existing merely to entice her, and one day our powers would mingle to create something so beautiful and amazing that the Council wouldn’t dare touch it.
Whether or not Zeph and Kols opted to be a part of that was up to them.
So far, they were following the right path.
But I knew from him that our road wasn’t an easy one, with a multitude of potential dead ends. My purpose in this life was to ensure the female curling into me survived it.
And I would do everything in my power to see it through.
Even if she hated me for it.