Fiery eyes flared brighter. "Because it wouldn't be the truth."
"I saw you, Kellan - just now, with Candice. I saw your fangs in her wrist. Her blood was on your lips - "
"Yes," he admitted, unblinking, unflinching. "I fed from Candice out of necessity. I've fed from her many times, because I am Breed and I cannot live without blood. I feed from her because I can trust her and because she demands nothing from me.">And yes, he wanted to pierce her vein and draw her lily-sweet blood into his body until nothing else mattered.
Until she was bound to him as his eternal mate, where no laws, no lies, no damnable fate could keep them apart ever again.
Holy hell.
The urge to make that a reality - right here, right now - nearly set his boots on a reverse course, back to his chamber. It took all the self-control he had to keep himself moving on his forward path. His footsteps echoed sharply on the earthen floor of the bunker's corridor. His transformed eyes threw a bright amber glow against the dingy concrete walls. His head rang with the fevered pound of his pulse, each beat a reminder of the thirst that raked him.
A thirst he knew only one woman would ever truly sate.
Unfortunately, he was Breed, and regardless of what - or whom - his heart craved, his body had needs that could not be ignored. He couldn't recall precisely the last time he'd fed. Too long by far, based on the savage state he was in now.
Kellan stalked up the dark hallway of the old fort, snarling and ripe with aggression. If it were nightfall outside, he'd break for the city and run until exhaustion purged the worst of his dual fevers. Hunting for a blood Host was easy in the thickly settled neighborhoods of Boston and its surrounding boroughs. No trick at all to find a willing and able human vein, even under the strict feeding laws and curfews imposed since First Dawn.
But it was morning beyond the thick cement walls of his rebel lair.
And he knew damn well the wait until sunset would be a torment he couldn't withstand. Not so long as Mira was under the same roof.
Not so long as everything savage and inhuman within him was hammering with the demand to seek her out again. To take her.
To keep her as his own, regardless of the hell they would both be forced to pay in the end.
He let a growl roll through his teeth and fangs as he headed for the main area of the bunker. Up ahead, he heard the soft drip of water in the shower room, the shuffle of bare feet on a wet concrete floor.
Kellan glanced inside as he reached the open entryway. Candice was seated on a stone bench in the dressing area, combing out her wet black hair. Her skin was damp under her white V-neck T-shirt, the ink of her many tattoos bleeding through the thin fabric. She glanced over her shoulder at him as he paused in the doorway.
Hazel-green eyes met his amber gaze and went wide for a second. She saw his hunger. She understood. She always had. With a mild nod, she set down her comb and made room for him beside her on the bench.
Kellan hesitated, knowing this wasn't what he wanted, not really.
Candice knew that too. He saw the understanding in her gentle eyes as she watched him hesitate at the threshold of the room. She knew what he wanted, and from whom, and yet she still gave him a compassionate smile.
She held her hand out to him, as she had so many times before.
Kellan exhaled a ragged breath.
Then he stepped inside.
Chapter Ten
FOR LONG MOMENTS AFTER KELLAN LEFT, MIRA DIDN'T SO much as move.
Confusion rooted her bare feet to the floor. Hurt made it hard to breathe for the ache in her breast. And all the while, her pulse was still thrumming, her body still warm and vibrating with futile, foolish desire.
Don't let me make a bad situation worse.
Kellan's rejection stung, more than she wanted to acknowledge.
So, that's all she was to him now - a bad situation that was likely to turn worse?
She didn't want to believe that. His eyes had told a different story, full of amber heat and raging need. So did his body, hard with desire, dermaglyphs lit up like fireworks, his powerful hands trembling when he'd set her away from him and told her it couldn't be.
It was his words that left no room for error.
He didn't want her.