Dark Promise by Annika West

38

“No!” I shouted as he deposited me onto the grass. I leaned on the cave wall, not really trusting my legs to work. “You don’t get to just burn the fucking Spring Court and snatch me.”

I would have liked to tell him what he did get to do. Which was, in no particular order: fuck off, bring me food, work on an apology letter, buy me an island.

But instead, Hux manhandled me yet again to get me on my back. His eyes were still slitted and inhuman. His predatory instincts were set on cornering me and holding me down.

Dominating me.

We both knew I could get out of his hold, but with the state he was in, I couldn’t risk him berserking out and burning shit.

Even as that thought crossed my mind, his eyes melted to human amber. Hux-colored. Hux-shaped.

And full of lust.

The mating haze settled over me, and our runes ignited. But I kept it all at bay.

There’s no way I was giving into him right now. Not until I got a few things in order.

I gritted out, “You also don’t get to do this when we’re still technically fighting. Again.”

“You want to fight, Aster? That’s what you want?”

“I don’t like fighting! I like happy, easy shit! But you are making it the opposite of easy, you carnivorous chicken,” I shot back.

“And just like a raging sugar addict Cut, you’ll run the moment things become too difficult.”

I tried to surge forward and do that forehead smash you see in the movies, but Hux simply shoved me back down.

Something inside me wilted. He’d struck a chord.

I keep people at arm’s length so they don’t hurt me. That’s the real reason why I don’t have friends.

I pushed my parents away because I was different from them, and some bullshit part of me decided I’d be better off alone. That they’d be better off without me.

I’m strangely attracted to Willow because she doesn’t act like she likes me, and somehow, that makes me feel safe.

I don’t accept apologies from people because that feels like admitting they had power over my emotions in the first place.

All these thoughts rattled in my empty head. These were the things I didn’t like to admit. But there’s no denying their existence.

I still didn’t regret leaving Vulcan Corp. after finding out about Creed. I’d needed to get out of there.

The point, however, was that my escaping to Faery did reflect a larger pattern in my tendencies.

Damn.

“I do what I need to,” I snapped. It didn’t make me perfect, but hey. I’m just a Cut trying to survive a harsh world.

His eyes narrowed, accusing. Like I was the problem here. “What’s that? Vanish into your energetic realm? I already told you what I’d do if you disappeared on me again.”

I gaped. “That was just for the flight! And you’re normal again, so you don’t have any excuse to go batshit!”

“Normal?” he snarled, looking every bit as crazy as he had before. “No, Aster, I am not. I haven’t been normal since the moment I laid eyes on you in that fucking courtroom.”

He moved his hips forward, making sure I felt every hard inch of him.

Oh, shit.

His bared teeth were one snap away from my nose as he continued, “I haven’t been normal since seeing you bent over that godforsaken sink, drinking from the faucet like an idiot.”

No matter how mad I was at him, my body responded. Every inch of my skin felt flushed and tight. Every nerve ached with need.

The gold glow of the mating rune doused him in an angel-esque light, in stark contrast of the raging, vengeful snarl on his lips.

His lips brushed my cheekbone, soft and threatening. “And I haven’t been normal since tasting you. Since knowing what it feels like to be inside you. Since accepting that you are my mate, the person I was born to be with.”

But I can’t be his. Not yet.

You can’t have all the control you crave and an equal partnership. That much I knew. I might not be as experienced as Hux, but I knew that with certainty.

All my pent-up anger and grief rose to the surface, mingling with the mating haze.

I was speechless. Entirely, utterly speechless. Not even my thoughts tried to ramble for me.

He let go of my hands, probably banking on the fact that I wasn’t thinking about running. “I know what I want, Aster. Tell me, my mate… what do you want? From me. From life.”

He hovered, not moving. His eyes bore into mine, ravenous and predatory.

Even if I can’t be his just yet, it doesn’t mean we can’t try to fix that. So…what do I want?

Thankfully, it’s something I’d been thinking about lately.

I quirked a brow in challenge. “You asked for it, Overlord.”

And then I shifted into the energetic realm.

The surprise on his face told me all I’d needed to know. He hadn’t expected that.

But this time, I wasn’t running.