Page 73 of Before the Bond
“Why are you here?”
Depending on his answer, I’d kill him.
Elias moved, just enough to lift his chin.
"Getting some air," Elias said. He looked back up at the canopy, unhurried. "I like this stretch. Old growth goes quiet out here. You've probably noticed."
"You've been running her route."
His smile stayed steady when he met my eyes.
"She's a good runner," he said. "Remarkable, even. She doesn't slow down when something's bothering her — she pushes harder. Interesting habit for someone who insists she isn't running from anything."
My wolf wanted to close its jaws around something solid. Namely his neck.
"She's not yours to observe," I warned.
“True.” Elias shrugged as if he had nothing to carry on his conscience. "And she’s not yours to own."
He said it without venom. That was the thing about Elias, he never raised his voice. He didn’t need to.
I'd known this technique for years. It didn't make it less effective.
“You’re playing with her.”
“Playing?” Elias said. “God forbid I’m the only one who’s ever honest with her.”
I pressed him harder into the tree. The trunk briefly swung backward.
Elias’s smile flickered at the impact, but he then looked at me. He smiled even wider.
"Give me one reason why I shouldn’t throttle you here and now,” I said in a low growl. The heat of it hadn't left my voice. “If you ever come here again —"
"You'll what?" he asked. I sensed a laugh in his throat. "Caleb. Be honest with yourself, if not with me. I'm not the threat in this particular story, am I?"
Elias tilted his head.
"She still thinks you're withholding to protect her," he said, rolling his eyes.
Then something else happened.
His smile dropped. The airiness in his disposition vanished.
"You’re pathetic.” His voice was lower than it had ever been. “You tout this principle of letting her choose. Would she actually choose you if she knew everything about you?"
Something in me went very still.
What started as anger hardened into fury.
My grip tightened until I could feel my nails cutting into my palms through the fabric, a fistful of his jacket clenched in my hands.
Elias lifted higher and higher into the air. His body sagged as his jacket pressed against his neck like a noose.
I thought about what I could do to him — punish him, make sure he never came back. I loathed him for endangering Olivia. I loathed him for daring to come here, as if any of his own intentions were pure in the slightest.
Elias didn't struggle. He didn't even look frightened. He looked at me with the calm, patient expression of a man who had been proven right — and that was the thing that stopped me.
This was what he came for.
