Caspian's kiss was brutal and claiming, his tongue sweeping into my mouth like he was trying to devour me whole.

But that wasn't what stole my breath.

It was the feeling that came with it.

Heat flooded through me... not just arousal, but something deeper. Primal. Like every cell in my body was waking up and screaming yes at the top of their lungs.

"Not here," David said urgently. "Claiming takes time you don't have. They're two minutes out."

Caspian broke the kiss, both of us breathing hard. "Where?"

"Safe room. Basement. Steel reinforced, soundproofed, no windows. You'll have maybe an hour before they breach it."

"That's enough." Caspian grabbed my hand and followed David to a section of floor that looked no different from the rest.

David pressed his palm against a hidden scanner, and a section of concrete slid aside, revealing stairs descending into darkness.

"Go," he said to Caspian. "I'll hold them as long as I can."

"You'll get yourself killed..."

"I'm already dead." David smiled grimly. "Been dead for three years. This is just borrowed time anyway."

Before I could ask what that meant, Caspian pulled me down the stairs.

The basement was exactly as David described.. concrete and steel, a single room with a bed, a weapons cache, and nothing else. The door sealed behind us with a hiss of hydraulics.

"Soundproofed?" I asked.

"Completely." Caspian was already stripping off his jacket. "They won't hear what happens in here. Won't smell it either. Won't know I'm claiming you until it's done."

My pulse hammered. "How long does it take?"

"Depends." He pulled his shirt over his head, revealing that scarred chest again. "On how much you fight. How much you surrender. How deep you let me in."

"I thought you said I already agreed..."

"You agreed to be claimed. You didn't agree to how." He unbuckled his belt. "And claiming isn't just a bite, Rielle. It's blood. Pain. Pleasure so intense you'll think you're dying. And then, when you're broken open and begging..." His pants hit the floor. "...that's when I mark you. Make you mine forever."

I should have been terrified.

I was. But underneath the fear was something else. Something dark and hungry that wanted exactly what he was describing.

"Strip," Caspian commanded.

"I..."

"Now. Or I do it for you. And I won't be gentle."

My hands moved to the leather jacket, sliding it off. Then the pants. The borrowed clothes pooling at my feet until I stood naked in front of him.

His eyes went molten silver.

"Fuck," he breathed. "You're even more beautiful than I imagined."

"You imagined this?"

"From the moment I saw you on that platform." He moved closer, and I felt the heat of his body like a physical thing. "Saw you standing there in that ridiculous dress, trying so hard to be brave. And I knew..." His hand cupped my breast, thumb circling my nipple. "...that you were mine. That I'd burn the world down before I let anyone else touch you."

"That's insane..."

"That's the bond." He backed me toward the bed. "It doesn't wait for permission. Doesn't care about logic. It just knows."

My legs hit the mattress and I sat, looking up at him.

"I'm scared," I admitted.

"Good." He knelt between my legs, spreading them wide. "Fear keeps you sharp. Makes you feel everything more intensely. And I want you to feel everything, Rielle. Every thrust. Every bite. Every moment of pleasure and pain until you can't tell the difference between them."

His mouth descended on my inner thigh, and I gasped.

"This is going to hurt," he murmured against my skin. "Not the sex. The claiming. When I bite you, when my venom enters your bloodstream... it's going to feel like fire in your veins. Like dying and being reborn. And you're going to scream."

"Venom?"

"Lycan claiming venom. It rewrites your biology. Links us on a cellular level. Makes it so you can feel what I feel, crave what I crave. And once it takes..." His teeth grazed my skin. "...there's no going back. You'll be mine until one of us dies. And even then, the bond doesn't fully break. You'll feel the absence like a missing limb for the rest of your life."

"You're really selling this," I said shakily.

He laughed against my thigh. "I'm being honest. Because you deserve to know what you're agreeing to. But Rielle..." He looked up, his eyes burning. "...it also means no one can hurt you without me knowing. No one can threaten you without signing their death warrant. You become untouchable. Protected by lycan law and my personal vow. Every enemy I have becomes your enemy. And every protection I have becomes yours."

"What about pleasure?"

"That too." His smile turned wicked. "When I fuck you, you'll feel my pleasure on top of your own. Doubled. Tripled. So intense you might black out from it. And when you come..." His finger traced through my wetness. "...I'll feel it like it's happening to me. Which means I'll want to make you come again. And again. Until neither of us can move."

My breath came faster. "That sounds..."

"Addictive?" He pushed one finger inside me. "It is. Most mated pairs can barely stand to be apart. The bond craves closeness. Contact. Constant reaffirmation that the other is alive and well."

"So I'll be dependent on you."

"We'll be dependent on each other." He added a second finger. "I'll crave your touch as much as you crave mine. Need your presence. Your scent. Your body. It's not one-sided, Rielle. It's absolute."

Above us, something crashed. Loud enough to hear even through the soundproofing.

"They're in the building," Caspian said calmly, still working his fingers inside me. "Which means we're out of time for debate. Last chance to say no."

I looked at him, this male who'd bought me, threatened for me, was now offering me protection at a cost I barely understood.

"Do it," I said.

"Say it properly."

"Claim me. Make me yours. Whatever it takes."

His eyes flared. "Good girl."

Something older stirred beneath his surface emotion. Not surprise. Recognition that had existed long before I ever saw him. Like he had been tracking a scent only he could feel, and it had finally led him here.

He withdrew his fingers and positioned himself at my entrance. The piercing caught the dim light, and I felt a flutter of nervousness about how that was going to feel.

"This is going to be fast and rough," he warned. "I need to get my venom into you before they breach this room. The pleasure comes after. Understood?"

I nodded.

"Say it."

"I understand."

"Good." He thrust forward in one brutal stroke, and I screamed.

The piercing was cold and foreign and wrong, hitting places inside me that Kieran had never reached. The stretch burned, my body trying to accommodate his size while the metal added an edge of sensation that bordered on too much.

Caspian didn't give me time to adjust.

He fucked me hard and fast, his hands gripping my hips hard enough to bruise, his hips slamming into mine with punishing force. Each thrust drove that piercing against something inside me that made stars explode behind my eyes.

"Take it," he growled. "Take all of me. Show me you can handle being mine."

I wrapped my legs around his waist, meeting his thrusts despite the overwhelming sensation. Pain and pleasure blurred together until I couldn't separate them.

"That's it," he praised. "Fuck, you feel incredible. So tight around me. Like you were made for my cock."

His words shouldn't have affected me.

They did.

"Caspian..." I gasped. "I'm going to..."

"Not yet." He changed angles, hitting something that made my vision white out. "You don't come until I'm inside you completely. Until you're marked. Until —fuck— "

He thrust deeper, and I felt him hit my cervix, the piercing adding pressure that should have hurt but instead sent pleasure spiraling through me.

"Now," he said. "Come now."

The orgasm crashed through me like a freight train, my body clenching around him as pleasure detonated in every nerve ending. I screamed his name, my nails raking down his back, drawing blood.

"Perfect," Caspian groaned. "So fucking perfect. Now..."

He leaned down and bit my neck.

Hard.

His fangs sank deep, and fire exploded through my veins.

It wasn't like the pleasure of orgasm. This was different. Deeper. Like liquid magma replacing my blood, burning through every cell, rewriting me from the inside out.

I screamed. Couldn't help it. The pain was indescribable.

But underneath it... pleasure. Dark and wrong and so intense I could barely breathe. My body arched against him, trying to escape and get closer at the same time.

Caspian's hips never stopped moving. He fucked me through the claiming, through the fire in my veins, through my screams that probably would have brought the whole building down if not for the soundproofing.

And then I felt it.

His pleasure. His need. His absolute certainty that I was his.

The bond snapped into place like a physical thing, and suddenly I wasn't alone in my head anymore. Caspian was there... not reading my thoughts, but feeling my emotions, my pain-pleasure, my terror-arousal.

And I felt his.

The overwhelming satisfaction at marking me. The possessive pride at making me scream. The desperate need to protect me from everything and everyone.

And underneath it all... something darker. Something that scared me.

Obsession.

He withdrew his fangs and licked the wound, his venom sealing it.

"Mine," he whispered against my neck. "Finally mine."

Then he came.

I felt his orgasm like it was my own... the pleasure doubling through the bond until I came again from just feeling him come. Both of us crying out, bodies locked together, the bond pulsing between us like a living thing.

When it finally ended, we were both shaking.

Caspian collapsed on top of me, his weight pressing me into the mattress, his face still buried in my neck.

"How do you feel?" he asked.

"Like I've been set on fire and drowned at the same time." I could feel his heartbeat against my chest. Could feel his satisfaction through the bond. "Is it always like that?"

"The first time is the worst. And the best." He finally pulled back to look at me. "The venom takes about an hour to fully integrate. Until then, you're going to feel everything intensely. Pain. Pleasure. Emotion. It'll settle eventually, but right now..."

Another crash, closer this time.

"They're coming," Caspian said. He pulled out of me, slowly and carefully, and I whimpered at the loss. "Can you stand?"

"I don't know."

He helped me up, and immediately my legs gave out.

"Venom's hitting hard," he observed, catching me. "You're going to be useless in a fight."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence..."

"Which means I need to kill them fast." He was pulling on pants, grabbing weapons from the cache. "Stay here. Lock the door behind me. And whatever you hear..." His eyes met mine. "...don't open it until I come back."

"What if you don't come back?"

His smile was pure violence. "Then you'll feel me die through the bond, and you should probably kill yourself before Marcus gets to you. Because what he'll do to you is worse than death."

Before I could respond, he was gone.

The door sealed behind him with that hydraulic hiss.

And I was alone.

Naked. Marked. Claimed.

And terrified.

The silence was worse than the noise.

I sat on the edge of the bed, my legs still shaking from the venom coursing through my system, and listened to nothing. The soundproofing was too good. I couldn't hear gunshots or fighting or screaming.

Couldn't hear if Caspian was winning.

Or dying.

The bond pulsed in my chest, a living connection that felt like a second heartbeat. His emotions bled through. Rage. Focus. The cold calculation of violence being executed with precision.

He was alive.

For now.

I tried to stand again, managed three steps before my knees buckled. The venom was still rewriting me, and every nerve ending felt raw and exposed. Even the air against my skin was almost too much sensation.

I needed clothes. Needed to be ready to move if, when, Caspian came back.

The weapons cache had extra gear. I pulled on tactical pants that were too big, a shirt that hung off one shoulder, boots I had to tie tight to keep from sliding off. Everything smelled like gun oil and violence.

Nothing smelled like Caspian.

My wolf, the part of me I'd barely acknowledged since Kieran's betrayal, stirred restlessly. She wanted our mate. Wanted to know he was safe. The bond was too new, too raw, and the separation felt like being torn in half.

"He's fine," I told myself. "He's a lycan. He can handle a few hunters."

The bond flared with sudden pain.

I gasped, doubling over as Caspian's agony lanced through me. Something had hurt him. Badly.

"No," I breathed. "No, no, no..."

The pain faded to a dull throb, replaced by cold fury that definitely wasn't mine.

He was still fighting. Still alive.

But hurt.

I stumbled to the door, pressed my hand against the scanner David had used. Nothing happened. Of course. It was keyed to David's palm, not mine.

"Fuck." I slammed my fist against the steel, knowing it was useless. "Caspian!"

No response.

The bond pulsed again with determination, violence, and satisfaction. He'd killed someone. Maybe multiple someones.

But there were more. I could feel his awareness of threats still surrounding him, could feel his tactical assessment running through what I'd do next, where the danger was--

The door hissed.

I stumbled backward as it opened, raising my hands in some pathetic attempt at self-defense.

David stood there, covered in blood that definitely wasn't his. His cold blue eyes took me in; the too-big clothes, the shaking hands, the bite mark on my neck that was still angry and red.

"Claimed," he observed. "Good. That'll help."

"Where's Caspian?"

"Dealing with the last two." He jerked his head toward the stairs. "Come on. We need to move before reinforcements arrive."

"I'm not leaving without--"

"He sent me to get you. Now move."

I followed him up the stairs, my legs barely cooperating, the venom still making everything feel too intense.

The warehouse floor was a massacre.

Bodies everywhere. Blood pooling on concrete. Weapons scattered like toys. The smell hit me, copper and gunpowder and death.

I counted seven bodies.

"Marcus sent ten," David said, reading my expression. "Caspian's handling the other three."

"Where?"

He pointed to a side room, the door hanging off its hinges.

The bond pulled me toward it like a physical leash. I stumbled across the warehouse floor, stepping over bodies, trying not to look at their faces.

The side room was worse.

Two bodies on the floor, throats torn out. And Caspian, standing over a third male who was on his knees, begging.

"Please," the hunter gasped. "Marcus forced me. I didn't want--"

"Everyone has a choice." Caspian's voice was dead calm, but I could feel his rage through the bond. "You chose money over morals. Chose to hunt my mate. Now you get to live with that choice. For about thirty more seconds."

"Wait... "

I saw Caspian's hand move. Heard the wet crack of a neck breaking. Watched the body drop.

He turned, and his silver eyes locked on me.

Blood covered his chest, his hands, his face. Some of it was his, I could see a deep gash across his ribs, another on his thigh. But most of it belonged to other people.

"You should be in the safe room," he said.

"I felt you get hurt."

"The bond." He wiped blood from his face with the back of his hand. "You'll feel everything for the first few days until you learn to filter it. Pain. Pleasure. Hunger. All of it."

"You're bleeding."

"I'm healing." He crossed to me, leaving bloody footprints. "Are you okay?"

"Am I okay?" I stared at him. "You just killed ten people and you're asking if I'm okay?"

"Technically David killed three of them." He cupped my face with blood-slick hands. "But yes. You're what matters. The rest is just cleanup."

Through the bond, I felt his absolute certainty. His complete lack of remorse. These males had threatened me, so he'd killed them. Simple as that.

"We need to go," David called from the main floor. "I'm getting chatter on police scanners. Someone heard the gunshots."

"Right." Caspian grabbed my hand and pulled me back through the warehouse.

David had pulled the motorcycle around to a side exit. "Safe house is forty minutes north. I'll handle cleanup here and meet you tomorrow."

"You sure?" Caspian asked.

"I'm sure. Now go. Before I have to kill cops too."

Caspian swung onto the bike. I got on behind him, my body still weak from the venom, my mind reeling from everything I'd just witnessed.

We rode in silence through dark streets, heading away from the city. The night air was cold against my skin, but Caspian's body was warm against my front.

The bond pulsed between us with every heartbeat.

He killed ten people for me.

Would kill more.

Had promised to burn the world down to keep me safe.

And I'd let him claim me. Let him mark me. Let him make me his forever.

What did that make me?

"Stop thinking so loud," Caspian said over the engine noise. "I can feel your spiral through the bond."

"I can't help it. You just... they're dead. All of them. Because of me."

"Because of Marcus," he corrected. "He sent them. He put the bounty on your head. This is his doing, not yours."

"But if I hadn't--"

"If you hadn't what? Existed? That's not how this works, Rielle." He gunned the engine, taking a turn too fast. "You don't get to feel guilty for other people's choices. Marcus chose greed. The hunters chose money. I chose to protect what's mine. None of that is on you."

"It doesn't feel that way."

"It will. Eventually." His hand found my thigh, squeezed once. "The bond will help. You'll start feeling what I feel. Understanding why I do what I do. Give it time."

We rode for another thirty minutes before pulling off onto an unmarked dirt road. Trees pressed close, blocking out the moonlight, creating a tunnel of darkness.

The safe house appeared, a cabin that looked abandoned but felt watched. Security cameras hidden in trees. Motion sensors buried in the ground. More defenses I probably couldn't see.

Caspian parked the bike and helped me off.

My legs gave out immediately.

He caught me, swept me into his arms. "Venom's still hitting you hard."

"How long does it last?"

"Another few hours. Then you'll crash. Sleep for twelve hours straight while your body finishes integrating the changes." He carried me to the door, which opened with a palm scan. "After that, you'll be stronger. Faster. Heal quicker. All the perks of being bonded to a lycan."

Inside, the cabin was nothing like the exterior suggested. Modern. Clean. Fully stocked with weapons, food, medical supplies.

Caspian carried me to the bedroom and set me on the bed.

"Stay here," he said. "I need to clean up and check the perimeter."

"Wait." I grabbed his hand. "That wound on your ribs- "

"Is already healing." But he sat on the edge of the bed anyway. "See? Barely bleeding now."

He was right. The gash that had been deep enough to see bone was already closing, skin knitting back together with supernatural speed.

"That's not normal," I breathed.

"That's lycan." He pressed my hand over the wound. "Feel it. Your body will do the same now. The bond shares more than emotions. It shares physical traits. Healing. Strength. Longevity."

"Longevity?"

"Lycans live a long time, Rielle. Centuries if we're lucky. And now..." His eyes met mine. "...so will you. The bond extends your lifespan to match mine. Keeps us together. Forever."

The word hung between us.

Forever.

With this male I'd known for less than six hours. This male who'd killed for me. Claimed me. Changed my biology.

"I know it's a lot," Caspian said quietly. "And I know I didn't give you time to process. But Marcus wasn't going to wait. The hunters weren't going to wait. I had to act fast or lose you."

"And if I hate you for it?"

"Then you hate me." His hand covered mine over his healing wound. "But you're alive. Safe. Mine. And I can live with your hatred as long as you're breathing."

Through the bond, I felt the truth of it. He'd rather have me alive and hating him than dead and mourned.

It should have terrified me.

Instead, something in my chest loosened.

"I don't hate you," I admitted.

"No?" His thumb traced my knuckles. "What do you feel?"

"Confused. Overwhelmed. Terrified." I paused. "And safe. For the first time in years. I feel safe."

His expression softened. "Good. That's all that matters."

He leaned forward and kissed me, gentle this time, not the brutal claiming from before. Just a soft press of lips that somehow felt more intimate than everything that had come before.

When he pulled back, both of us were breathing harder.

"Shower," he said roughly. "Both of us. You smell like fear and venom, and I smell like a slaughterhouse."

He helped me to the bathroom, started the shower, peeled off my borrowed clothes with surprising gentleness.

Then his own clothes.

We stood under the hot water together, and he washed the blood from my skin, the tears from my face, the fear from my trembling hands.

"I've got you," he murmured against my wet hair. "No matter what comes next. I've got you."

And standing there, naked and claimed and bonded to a monster who'd killed for me...

I believed him.

I should have felt trapped. That was the logical reaction. Everything about him was too fast, too absolute, too final.

But the bond didn’t give me space for logic. It pressed emotion into everything... fear, relief, heat, instinct... until nothing felt clean enough to separate. I didn’t know if I was being taken or chosen. Only that my body had stopped treating those two things as different.

I woke slowly, caught between sleep and something heavier, more aware. For a few seconds, I couldn’t figure out what felt different. Then it settled in.

The room wasn’t mine.

And I wasn’t alone.

The air carried a faint warmth, the kind of heat left behind by someone else’s presence, and it pressed against my skin like a warning. My eyes opened to sunlight spilling through tall windows, streaking across the floor in gold and white. The quiet hum of the morning should have been calming, but instead, it amplified the steady, unmistakable feeling of being watched.

Caspian lay beside me, propped on one elbow, his silver gaze fixed on my face as if he had been studying me every second of the night. His presence was overwhelming, more than just physical and it pressed on me through the bond, a constant pull that I was still learning to recognize and resist.

"How long have you been staring?" I asked, my voice rough from sleep, betraying the tight knot of tension in my chest.

"Long enough to know you don’t sleep well," he said calmly. "You were restless." 

"That’s not an answer," I muttered, squinting against the morning light.

A faint curve touched his mouth, just enough to hint at amusement. "Three hours," he admitted plainly, almost as if it were a fact and nothing more.

I blinked at him. “That’s… not normal.”

“No,” he agreed easily. “But neither is this.”

His hand rested lightly on my shoulder as I shifted, grounding me even as the ache in my muscles reminded me of the venom still working through my system. The lingering heat under my skin, the almost imperceptible hum of the bond deep in my chest and it all pressed together in a strange, unrelenting intensity that made me feel exposed, vulnerable, and inexplicably drawn to him all at once.

I tried to sit up.

Regretted it instantly.

A dull ache spread through my body, muscles stiff and sore as though every fiber of me had been rewoven overnight. Caspian’s hand pressed gently against my shoulder, steadying me before I could twist the wrong way.

"Easy. The venom’s still settling," he said, voice calm, measured, but with a note of possession that made the hairs on my neck rise.

"How long does that take?" I asked, forcing myself to breathe through the soreness, through the way my body seemed to tingle with anticipation and residual pain at the same time.

"A day or two." His thumb brushed absently along my collarbone, casual yet deliberate, every touch threaded with the quiet satisfaction he took in my recovery. "Then you’ll feel better than you ever have."

Stronger. Faster. Changed.

I felt it through the bond, a faint echo of his pride, his possessiveness, the pull toward me that refused to weaken even for a second. It was strange, disorienting, and intoxicating all at once. My chest tightened at the awareness of him, of his thoughts and emotions wrapped around mine, and I exhaled slowly.

Pushing myself up against the headboard this time, careful not to aggravate my muscles further, I murmured, "This is going to take some getting used to." 

"It won’t take as long as you think," he said.

There was a hardness in his gaze now, a subtle shift from calm to something darker, sharper. The bond responded immediately, a low, insistent pressure in my stomach that had nothing to do with pain.

I frowned at him. "Don’t start." 

"I haven’t done anything," he said, voice deceptively neutral.

"You’re thinking about it," I accused, voice uneven.

His expression didn’t change, but through the bond, I felt the truth before he spoke. "I’m always thinking about it." 

Heat crept up my neck despite myself. "We just woke up," I said weakly, trying to maintain some control.

"And?" His tone dropped just slightly, heavy with intent. "That’s never stopped me before." 

"That’s not reassuring," I said, though the warmth curling through me told a different story.

"It’s not meant to be," he said, and his hand moved, deliberate and slow, tracing from my shoulder with a precision that made my pulse spike. Not aggressive, not rushed, just… aware. Fully aware.

I tried to focus on the ache in my muscles, the dull throb of residual venom, but my body betrayed me. Every flicker of interest, every tiny reaction was mirrored back through the bond. It was too much, exposing more than I wanted him to see.

"There it is," he murmured, and I felt the shiver of his satisfaction.

"Stop narrating my reactions," I said, glaring at him though it accomplished nothing.

"Then stop reacting," he countered, tone teasing, controlled, impossibly dominant.

I exhaled sharply, trying to reclaim some semblance of control. The bond amplified every sensation, every pulse of heat, every subtle tightening of muscles. My chest rose and fell unevenly as the awareness of him settled deep inside me.

"This is the bond messing with my head," I muttered.

"It’s not just your head," he said, calm, steady, unyielding.

My phone vibrated on the counter. The one from yesterday that I’d completely forgotten existed.

Seventeen missed calls. All unknown numbers.

"Don’t answer those," Caspian said without looking up. "Marcus trying to reach you. Kieran’s friends. People you don’t want to talk to."

I put the phone down, but it immediately vibrated again.

This time with a text message.

Unknown: He can't protect you forever. 50 million is a lot of motivation. Sleep well, Rielle.

My blood turned cold.

Caspian was there in an instant, reading over my shoulder. His rage flooded through the bond... hot, violent, barely controlled.

"They're threatening you in my safe house." His voice was eerily calm. "They're actually that fucking stupid." 

"How did they even get my number?" 

"Marcus has resources." He grabbed his own phone, fingers flying. "But so do I."

His phone rang two seconds later. David’s voice came through the speaker, dry and amused. "They're getting bold." 

"Trace it," Caspian ordered.

"Already working on it. But Caspian... there's something else. Something you need to know." 

"What?" 

"Marcus put out a second bounty. Not for Rielle." David paused. "For you. Dead only. Hundred million." 

The kitchen went dead silent.

"He's trying to remove you from the equation," David continued. "Figures if you're dead, the bond breaks, Rielle's vulnerable again and someone else claims her." 

"The bond doesn't break with death" I said. "Caspian told me..." 

"It doesn't fully break. But it weakens. Enough that another lycan could claim her if they moved fast enough." David's tone turned grim. " Marcus is betting someone will take that risk for a hundred million."

Caspian's hand found mine, gripping tight. Through the bond, I felt his fury and something else.

Fear.

Not for himself. For me. For what would happen if he failed to protect me.

" How many takers? " Caspian asked.

"So far? Twelve confirmed. All high-level hunters. Some are lycans, which is the real problem. They know what they're up against."

"Names." 

David rattled them off. Each one made Caspian's jaw tighter.

"We're going hunting," Caspian said when David finished.

"Caspian..." 

"They want me dead? Fine. Let them try. But I'm not sitting here waiting for them to come to us." He looked at me. "You're staying here. Locked down. Full security."

"No." The word escaped before I could stop it."I'm not sitting here waiting to find out if you die." 

"Rielle..." 

"The bond goes both ways, remember?" My voice was shaking but I kept going. "If you're in danger, I feel it. If you get hurt, I feel it. If you die..." I couldn't finish that sentence."I'd rather be there. Fighting with you. Than sitting here feeling you die through the bond while I can't do anything about it."

Silence fell.

Then David’s voice: "She's right. The bond makes separation dangerous. If you go down, she'll feel it and be vulnerable here alone. Better to keep her with you."

Caspian looked at me for a long moment. "You understand what you're asking? I'm going to kill people today. Probably a lot of people. And you'll be there watching." 

"I watched yesterday." 

"That was self-defense. This is preemptive hunting." His eyes were solid silver now. "This is me being the monster everyone's afraid of."

Through the bond, I felt what he wasn't saying. He was worried I'd see him at his absolute worst and realize I'd made a huge mistake. That the claiming would start feeling like a trap instead of protection.

I stepped closer, put my hand over his heart. "I've already seen the monster. I let him bite me anyway. So show me what happens when someone's stupid enough to threaten what's yours."

His smile was all teeth and violence and dark promise.

"As you wish."