She’s panting, trying to catch her breath, and I don’t push her. I take stock of our surroundings instead. Get a whiff of the air.
It smells clean. I don’t think there are any Ravagers nearby. And I can’t hear any sounds that I don’t attribute to me and Emlyn.
I know they could arrive at any moment, though, and we need to be ready to run if they do. I move to the wall and put my fingers on the cold tile. I can follow the seam, the cracks between individual tiles, by running my hand along it. We can use that to guide our way if we have to start running.
Emlyn’s breathing has steadied a bit, so I’m not really surprised when she breaks the silence between us.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers. “That was…humiliating.”
“What happened to you?” I ask her. “It was like you were possessed or something.”
“That man,” she says. “The one who called down to me from the top of the stairs…he was my alpha mate.”
I’m stunned. “You never told me you were mated.”
“I didn’t know if I could trust you,” she says. “But I guess there’s no keeping it from you now.”
“So you were trying to get to him?” I can hardly believe it, even though I know consciously that that’s what the mate bond does to people. “You know he was going to kill you, don’t you? I heard them talking about it on the beach. They wanted you dead. If you’d gone to him, he would have killed you then and there.”
“You just don’t know,” she says. “You don’t know what a mate bond feels like.”
“That doesn’t matter, Emlyn. I heard what the old man on the beach said. They were going to kill you.”
“All right,” she says. “That was their plan. But I couldn’t stop myself from wanting him.”
“Would you go back to him right now if I let you? I need to know if that’s something I need to be worried about.”
“Not now,” she says. “It’s better with distance. And—well.”
“Well what?”
“It’s easier,” she says. “When I’m with you.”
I remember the way she was practically grinding on me back there. “You’re saying I was a distraction from him?”
“Is that bad?”
“No, I don’t give a damn,” I say. “I’m happy to distract you whenever you want. Unless you still think we shouldn’t fuck again.”
She hesitates. “Why did you lie to me?” she asks. “About knowing where a coven was?”
“You know why. So you’d let me out of that cage,” I say. “It was as simple as that, and frankly, anyone in my place would have done the same thing. I didn’t mean it maliciously.”
She sighs. “That makes sense, I guess.”
“Your turn,” I say.
“My turn for what?”
“Why do the members of your old pack want you dead?” I ask. “I would have thought they would want you back alive. You’re of the right age to bear children. They can’t afford to squander that.”
“They don’t want me,” Emlyn says. “The last thing they want is to let me reproduce.”
“But why?” I ask.I know why. But there’s always a chance that flyer is lying. Maybe it isn’t true.
She’s quiet.
“You owe me an answer,” I tell her. “I saved you from them.”