Page 88 of Unmarked Magic

Pushing off the wall, I pulled my coat tighter around me. Reid was my fated mate, I couldn’t not do this for him. For us.

Even if the thought terrified me.

Inhaling a deep breath, I nodded at the guys, who gave me a knowing look.

We’re here if you need us.

Walking back inside the cell, I pushed the door open a crack. When Reid’s eyes found mine, emotion flooded through me. He stared up at me, choking on dread at my reentry. Terror filled his eyes.

Not for himself. For me.

I smiled anyway. “Hey.”

Reid

I shook my head. There was no fucking way I would do this. Never.

“Leave,” I pleaded, as she inched her way toward me. The vision of her came at me in slow motion, her boots echoing against the stone walls, ricocheting against the silence. Each footstep sounded like a time bomb exploding in my head. Every beat of her heart. Every rush of her blood. The newly heightened scent of her was the single most addictive thing I’d ever encountered. It took everything I had to hold it together and not demand she let me taste her.

My gums ached at the thought of getting to sink into her silken skin, and that thought alone scared the fuck out of me.

Who was I anymore?

I shook my head, trying to rid the thoughts hellbent on breaking my self-restraint. Lucky for me, I had no option. Adjusting my wrists in their confines, the metallic pull on my skin from the cuffs was just enough to irritate me, stalling the thought.

I stared up at her. She was so fucking beautiful. I’d always known it, always denied it. But I’d never wanted to cross the line of friendship for obvious reasons. She stared down at me, and I knew she was trying to hide her emotions, but she was failing miserably. She was anything but okay. Pure terror had stripped the amber from her eyes, plunging them into a dark forest green.

“You can’t be here,” I rasped, trying to ignore the intoxicating scent of her. It was as if the mate bond had increased tenfold, dragging me into its clutches.

I frightened her, and rightly so.

“This is my choice,” she replied quietly. “It’s my blood, my body. I get to choose what I do with it.”

“Not like this,” I urged. “This is not what I want for you. You don’t deserve this.” I’d never been more certain of anything in my life. She couldn’t live the rest of her years being my blood source. Having me feed on her. That thought alone left a foul taste in my throat.

“Stop deciding what’s best for me.” Her pained expression embedded splinters in my heart. I felt each one push deeper the longer she looked at me. Her voice lowered, her words drifting from her as if she had rehearsed them. “I don’t deserve to lose the person I love.”

My breath caught in my throat.

She loved me.

Me.

Even now.

Silence captured the cell in its gnarly fist, but something about it comforted me the longer it lingered. Because it had been a long while since I’d heard those words. Ones I never thought I would hear from a woman that was not my mother. Scar loved me. Even like this. But I couldn’t say it back. I would not give her any cause to sway this absurd idea that she would consider being my life source until her last breath. Even when I knew I would do the same for her.

I set my gaze to the wall, not letting myself look at her. My heart crashed into my ribcage, hers matching mine with the same intensity. I could feel her anxiety.

“Look at me,” she demanded.

I couldn’t.

“Reid.” Her voice had softened, and it drew me back to her, like a siren would the sea.

She held me captive in her gaze, and I held it as long as I could until I caved, surrendering to the eyes that had always felt like home from the moment I’d met her. “I won’t let you do this,” I countered, my voice cracking. She walked toward me, stopping in front of my feet. Dark smudges licked her eyelashes where her mascara had run from tears I’d not seen. “Fuck, Scar, don’t do it. I’m begging you.”

But, like the stubborn brat she was, she lowered into a crouch. Her wary gaze fell heavily on me, and I felt it like one would a straitjacket. Tight and impenetrable. I could not break free from her unwavering presence.