The power of the link flowed into his walls, merging and then passing through, while my beast wound around his energy. The tendrils found the aching abyss in him, and I pushed energy into it. The raw edges began to heal.
Around us, the wildflowers reacted to what pulsed from us. They threw their blooms wide open to the sunlight, spreading like a ribbon to each side of his racing form in a bright curtain of expanding color.
It was living proof of what I was trying to achieve. Yet still, his hooves beat against the earth as he ran. I was inside him now, and I sensed the desperation beneath the cold rage.
There was more. He wanted me, and the power of it robbed me of breath. Yet he was denying himself—why?
Dammit. He might be proud, arrogant, and assertive, but he was alsomine.
I gritted my teeth and tapped deeply into the strength within me. I had to win this fight. I showed him the depth of our need, as I offered him everything we had to give. He continued to fight it, shaking his head and screaming into the wind.
Talk to me, Sebastian.It wasn’t a request. It was a warning.
He sensed the steel beneath the words and answered.Fate will never again be my mistress.
She might not be,I countered.But I am.I took a deep breath and reached.STOP, Sebastian.
His stride hitched, and he snorted steam into the early morning air.
YOU. WILL. STOP.I flooded the words with everything I had.
His feet obeyed me, digging hard into the turf until he stood, shaking, amid the spreading wildflowers.
We belong together,I said.This is your destiny.
Youarean enchantress, not my mate,he said through clenched teeth.
His anger surged along the link, but I blocked it and stated firmly,No. I am your MATE.
He snorted and tilted his head to glare at me with one silver eye.Only if I agree.
I could force you. We both know it. But I won’t.I sat up tall on him.I am getting off now. Are you going to stay and talk, or am I going to have to chase you down again? Because I will. As often as it takes.
His ears flattened. Then,I will stay. For now.
I slid off him. He regarded me with glaring silver eyes.
I planted my hands on my hips. “Be nice to speak with you as a human.”
“You be an oveerbearing female,” he grumbled. But he embraced the change.
I sensed his surprise when it went smoothly, which told me he’d been having issues. Considering the raw fracture in his life essence, it was a wonder he could shift form at all.
His horn glowed as it fell free, and I watched it with a knot in my throat—but this shedding was a normal thing. His hair chased over a body that revealed that he still hadn’t regained the muscle he’d lost.
It also revealed a few other things that got my pulse racing. I stepped right into him before he was completely finished, and I took his hands. He went completely rigid.
“Sebastian,” I said softly. “What are you afraid of?”
“I be Bellati,” he said gruffly. “I fear nothing.”
I tilted my head. “You are afraid of me. Of us.”
He hesitated. “I cannot be part of this, Anna.”
What I sensed told me a different story. I squeezed his hands. “Are you afraid of being mated to a bossy bitch?”
“Never.” The response was so rapid that I believed it, and for just an instant, his eyes warmed, and his voice deepened. “I am not afraid of you.”
