Page 126 of Thirst
Meanwhile Twilight inserted herself between me and Rodrigo. She took my arm. “I’ve got her,” she told my cousin.
His mouth thinned, but he released me.
“You, too,” she told Maxime.
He lifted a single, manicured brow. “I don’t take orders from you.”
Twilight exhaled through her nose—sharp, unimpressed. “Look, Nyx has got skin in the game, too. She’s not going anywhere. He’s her mate.”
“Her mate?” Maxime sliced a considering look at me.
Nazaire’s head whipped in my direction. “This is true?”
“No.” I licked my lips. “I haven’t?—”
“Yes,” Cain said at the same time. “She’s mine.”
“Not yet,” I returned just as firmly.
Nazaire’s lip curled. “So that’s where you got the money.”
“Money?” I echoed.
“That half-million you have in a Swiss bank account.”
My mouth dropped, and he took that as guilt.
“That’s right, I know everything. You’ve been passing intel to this lover of yours—selling your sire out to gain his favor. I knew the truth when you returned without Pascal and Lemaire.”
“You’re wrong,” I said. “I took nothing from Cain, not a single cent. And Pascal and Lemaire were stupid enough to get caught by the Maritime Syndicate. I had nothing to do with that.”
His upper lip curled. “Now you add lying to your sins? I should’ve staked you the night you first took breath.”
At my side, Twilight went rigid. Cain inhaled, the sound loud in the charged silence.
But me? I felt only the faint echo of pain. I thought of telling Nazaire the truth—that the money came from my art, my “little hobby.” But I honestly didn’t care what he thought of me. Let him believe the worst.
“I disown you,” he continued, his voice laced with scorn. “From this day forward, you are nothing to me. Nothing. The bond of sire to spawn is severed.”
I braced for the familiar ache of rejection. But all I felt was a dizzying relief. I almost laughed with the weight lifting off my chest.
I was free. Nazaire had freed me in front of all of them, and he couldn’t take it back. It was a victory I hadn’t dared imagine.
I smiled—triumphant, unmasked. Letting my happiness show. Letting everything show. “So be it.”
“Ass,” Cain added in a low, carrying voice.
Our eyes met, and the room fell away. For a few seconds, there was only him. The man who’d surrendered to a rival enforcer for me. The man standing in the fire of a challenge because of me.
He hadn’t chosen himself. He hadn’t chosen his syndicate or his friends.
He’d chosen me.
How could I not choose him back?
My heart tumbled out of my chest and into his waiting hands.
“And yes,” I said, my gaze locked with his, “I’m Cain’s mate. I accept his mate bond. Whatever happens tonight, I accept that, too. His fate is my fate.”
