He gripped the front of his shirt, fisting the material as the pain in his chest exploded. It would all be over soon.
“You should go,” he rasped. Beneath his heartbreak bubbled a rage he might not be able to deflect. He couldn’t look at her.
“Adam.”
He flinched, eyes pressed shut as she touched his face. “Please, Anna. This is already unbearable.”
“Look at me,” she whispered, cupping his jaw. Her lips pressed to the corner of his mouth. “Look at me, Adam”
He forced his eyes to open and her image blurred. A sharp sob lodged in his throat, choking him as he refused to air his pain. His jaw trembled as he clenched his teeth.
She stared up at him with those beautiful eyes. “I want you to come with me.”
His muscles were locked so tight it muffled his hearing. He twitched with misunderstanding. “What?”
“I’m not abandoning you. I want you to take me home so I can take care of some things. That way, if you need me, I’m there.” She raised her wrist and pointed to her vein.
He tried to laugh, but all the breath in his lungs seemed frozen solid. “You aren’t saying goodbye?”
“No.” She smiled. “Not yet.”
Not ever, he hoped. “I...” He was speechless. He smiled. “I love you.”
Her smile turned sad. “Adam, I haven’t made up my—”
“I know.” He nodded. “But you also haven’t closed it off. We can leave tonight. Traveling by day will be difficult.”
She frowned, her eyes searching his as she gently held his face. “Because of the sun?”
He nodded. “While I appreciate you offering me your blood, you need your strength. Traveling by night will be less challenging for me.”
“Conservation. Got it.” She let go of his face and returned to pacing. “I need to check on my apartment and call my boss. My co-workers will be wondering where I’ve been, and I can’t let them worry.”
“You want to see the bartender?”
“I need to do this, Adam. They’re the only family I have and they’re probably worried sick. It’s not like me to miss work without calling. I’ll have to make up an excuse—tell them I had the flu or something.”
“I can take away their worry.”
She stilled. “What? You mean compel them to forget me?”
He nodded. “Or compel them to let you go.”
She frowned. “No, I don’t want you to do that.”
But he already had. “I saw him at your apartment the night I took you, Anna.”
She stilled. “Kyle?”
He nodded, bracing for her anger. She deserved the truth. “I was outside of your apartment when he rung for you. I was ... exhausted and starving. And you invited him into your home.”
Her hand closed around her throat. “Oh, my God, Adam, what did you do to him?”
“He shouldn’t have been there so late.”
“What did you do?”
He looked her in the eye, giving her the absolute truth. “I don’t know.”
“What do you mean, you don’t know?”
“I was in a red haze. You were mine. Another man, reeking of lust, stood at your door.”
“Did you hurt him?”
“No, I sent him away. I would have made sure he never came to you again like that.”
“You’re sure you sent him away?”
“Yes. Because once I had you, he was gone.”
“Adam, if you hurt him...”
“I’m not that far gone!” Uncertainty resounded in his voice. “I’m not a murderer.”
“You don’t sound so sure.”
Because he wasn’t. “Anna, I just wanted him to leave you alone. This territorial part of me... I don’t know how to shut it off when other men are around you.”
“Well, you’re going to have to figure out how to suck it up, Adam. I want you to come with me and there are men everywhere.”
“He was at your home.”
“I’m not arguing about this again. But you better hope to God that he’s in one piece when we get there.”
Her worry for the other man hit him like sickening sludge dredged up from the base of his stomach. His mind flashed. A blink of light. The taste of blood that was not Annalise’s. The heady flavor of testosterone spiked with adrenaline. The jolt of forcing a lesser male’s submission. The need to claim her.
“I drank from him.”
“What?” She glared at him with unexpected anger. No, not anger. Something else.
“My instincts were in control. It’s in my nature to take a dominant role in your life, that includes my rank among other men.”
She scoffed. “Oh, please. Don’t give me that alpha male crap. You bit my friend!”
“I was protecting you.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Kyle isn’t dangerous.”
“To me he is. Anything or anyone that threatens my relationship with you is a threat to my life. I won’t apologize for chasing him away from your door.”
A prickle of satisfaction fizzed at his territorial claim, but something else still polluted the air between them. It held the same fiery energy of anger, but with a denser aura. The feminist inside of her couldn’t fathom how his caveman mentality could appeal to her, but on some level it did.