An excited smile erupts across his face. “Yes, that is exactly what I am saying. Thank you for providing such a concise and clever summation.”
I stare at him for a few hard beats, then I demand, “Okay, what the hell kind of game are you trying to run on me?”
“No game, Reverence. I only wish to revere you as I should have from the start.” His head comes back up, and the look on his face punches me in the heart. Tortured and filled with regret. “That is my sole wish.”
Okay…I’m not sure what to do here. So much fucked up shit has happened over the last—dude, I can’t even tell you how many days it’s been, that’s how fucked up this shit is. But I can feel his sincerity and regret now. The emotions wash over me like they’re my own.
A new realization suddenly blazes across my mind. His emotions…I can feel them now. And on top of that, his words…they’re not coming from his mouth, they’re coming from his mind straight into mine.
Our mate bond. It must be working even though we’re from different species. And that means…
“You’re inside my head!”
“Yes,” he answers, without moving his mouth.
“Get out of my head!”
He dips his head again, then says, “Of coursssse, Reverencccce. But I do not think you will like the ssssound of my voicccce without the tongue cap.”
Okay…well…he’s right about that. This is weird. Like talking to a lizard.
The head communication was better. But… “I don’t want you in my head. Where’s your tongue cap? And whatever you were wearing to cover up your eyes?”
“I am not ssssure. I threw them away and they were never recovered.”
“Why did you throw them away?”
“Becausssse…” he gives me another pained look, and another wave of sadness washes over our mate bond. “I wisssshed to look upon you with my own drakkon eyessss. To tasssste you with my own drakkon tongue.”
A shiver runs through my body because again I can feel his sincerity, even though I know this is bullshit he’s spouting. It has to be.
“Did you…” My stomach turns at just the thought of it, but I have to ask, “Did you hypnotize me, too?”
“No, I cannot god speak you, Reverencccce. That hassss been a problem from the ssssstart. It issss a weaknessss where you were conccccerned. One I did not want you to know about.”
“But you’re telling me now.”
“Yessss.”
My heart thumps fiercely. “Why?”
He gives me another sad look. “Becausssse you are the mother of my hatchling, and I wissssh to give you the Reverencccce you are due. Assss I ssssaid before that is my only wissssh. My only wissssh in thissss life.”
He takes me by the hand. “Come, Reverencccce. I will draw you a bath and tend to you assss you deserve.”
A bath. That sounds so beyond great. Like the #relationshipgoals I had before I found out my thing with Akwasi was a complete sham. But no wait, I’ve got to remember who I’m dealing with.
I tug back on his hand. “Is this some kind of set up? Some new and even crueler way to hurt me? And my family?”
He looks back at me, his eyes intense in a way that goes way beyond their glow. “I will never hurt you. Or anyone in your family. That wassss my plan, but it issss not anymore.”
The promise, so sincere and unexpected stops my heart. Then lifts it with hope. But I keep my expression cynical as I demand, “You expect me to believe you?”
Another wave of emotion washes over our mate bond. Intense and unfathomably sad. “I exxxxpect nothing of you. I am aware I will have to work for everything I recccceive from you. In the meanwhile, my only wissssh issss to revere you in the time we have left.”
Maybe it’s the weird sad feeling coming off of him. Maybe it’s because I’m so confused. Maybe he’s a lying-ass bitch and he really did use our mate bond to hypnotize me.
Probably number three.
I mean why else would I give in with a simple, “Okay?”
Chapter Twenty-Four
CHLOE
Chloe woke up and immediately reached for Fenris, but his side of the bed was empty.
At first, she panicked. Had he left her too?
But then she remembered…Fenris departed yesterday for the westward-bound part of his annual hunting trip. He did this at the start of every winter. Went off for a day or two in each direction, catching as much meat as he could on each trip. And when he passed back by the house to go in the next direction, he’d leave everything he’d caught so far for her to preserve and salt.
She imagined her mate had camped overnight and got up early to hunt some more this morning. Last year when he went west, he’d brought home a stash so large it had taken her most of the day and half the night to pickle, salt, and jerk it all.