Darkyn's Mate

Darkyn pursued calmly, eyes glowing. He touched her again. She moved away. He was amused at whatever game he played as he closed the distance between them once more. It fed her fury. He took her arm, and she yanked away from him.

"Don't touch me!" she hissed.

He reached for her once more, and she slapped his hand away.

"If there is a way out, I will find it!" she snapped. "Fate said …" she stopped, recalling the blond deity's warning about not revealing he had visited.

"You trust Fate over me?" Darkyn mused. "Interesting. What did he tell you? Obey me, and you'd leave?" He continued to move closer.

"Yes." Her senses addled, Deidre was forced to retreat.

"What exactly did he say? That you'd leave?"

"That I'd be …" relatively okay. Fate hadn't said anything about leaving. She shook her head to clear the memory. "I mean, he didn't say leave … he …" A sick sense of betrayal sank into her stomach. "Survive. He said I'd survive."

"Maybe he wanted to ensure I didn't kill you before we were bound." Darkyn pretended to consider.

"You made a deal for me. Why would you kill me?"

"If I don't like what I find, I'm not obligated to keep you alive before the bonds form," he said pointedly. "You interpreted what he told you in a way that gave you hope."

She knocked away his next attempt to reach her, fully aware he was distracting her physically while whittling down her resistance mentally.

"Of all the Immortals and deities fucking with you, I have no need to lie. Yet you trust him over me."

"I don't trust any of you! From the first minute I was dragged into this fucked up world, I've been lied to and used. Past-Death claims to - stop! Don't touch me!" she said with a shudder at the fire his fingers sent through her arm. "Past-Death almost killed me and you trick me into coming here. Now you want to make sure I never leave!"

"I saved your life. By law, you are mine twice over even without the blood bond."

Her back hit the wall. He stopped close enough for their bodies to touch if she breathed in too deeply.

"I'm the only one who hasn't lied to you. Even Gabriel has," Darkyn said.

"No," she said flatly. "You won't turn me against him."

"Why? Because you felt the mating bond with him first? The same one you feel with me? He did nothing but hide the truth from you. Your illness, Wynn, Past-Death. He was in love with a ghost and unwilling to take a chance on you. Did he tell you who he was before he fucked you?"