Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 127461 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 637(@200wpm)___ 510(@250wpm)___ 425(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127461 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 637(@200wpm)___ 510(@250wpm)___ 425(@300wpm)
Gorya drove his fist into the wall. He’d done this to her. To Maya. He had been the one to poison her entire life. He’d stopped her from suiciding as a child and in his arrogance had shown her a way to live—for revenge. He’d given her a brief but thorough lesson on how to deceive the outside world. On how to hunt and kill those who wronged you and the ones you loved. How to survive in a nightmare.
He’d been the one to cause those silent screams. He’d been the one to put that look of terror and horror on her face at the thought of anyone—especially him—expecting her to have a relationship. She believed she couldn’t save herself or her leopard. He’d done that.
The pressure in his chest intensified. His vision blurred. His gut knotted and churned and bile rose. He spun around, facing away from her, fists knotted against his thighs. There was nothing he could say to her. He had no defense. None. He wasn’t about to force her to stay.
Rogue had to have known. Wraith had to have known. The two leopards hadn’t cared how difficult it would be for their human companions. They had staked their claim, believing Gorya and Maya would have to live with the consequences. That meant Maya would have to go through the mating heat with Gorya. No way in hell was he doing that to her.
He cursed his leopard. Clearly, you don’t know me as well as you thought you did. I would slay the two of us before I would hurt her like that. You should have known I would.
5
He saved us. Wraith had repeated that to her.
At the time, Maya hadn’t had a clue what her leopard meant. As far as Maya knew, she’d never seen Gorya in her life. She certainly didn’t remember meeting him. Although, now that she really thought about it, she had been aware of him the moment he’d walked into the building.
Her pulse pounded and she automatically slowed it down. Gorya was beyond upset and she sensed that was out of character for him. Because he was so distraught, she immediately calmed. He knew she was that child. Somehow, she’d shared the images of her childhood with him and he’d recognized those memories.
“You saved me. You got us all out of there and onto a ship that was scheduled to leave within the hour. You gave Nadia money for all of us. No one else would have tried to get us to safety. They said there was no way to hide those bodies. There had to be repercussions. The women talked about it, what he would do to you. No one thought you would live through it.”
He cleared his throat. “I’m sorry, Maya. I thought I was doing the right thing for you. I had no business imprinting on you the way I did. I didn’t realize what I was doing, but that isn’t an excuse.”
“Imprinting? I don’t understand.”
Gorya wasn’t facing her, so Maya allowed herself the luxury of twisting her fingers together in agitation. She was slowly regaining complete control. She had a strange need to comfort him, an emotion she’d never felt in her life.
“It’s when two people are bonded. My leopard bonded with yours. Essentially, he claimed her. You have a mark on your shoulder. You were hurt, and when he bit down in a holding bite, you barely noticed because you were so traumatized. He flooded your body with his hormones to call to your leopard and she answered. He needed to know she would keep you alive for me. He knew she was his mate. I don’t know how he knew, but he did. I held you, and I must have known on some level. I didn’t want you to die. That was more important than me living. More important than Patva finding out my secrets. I spoke directly into your mind rather than aloud to you, just as Rogue spoke to Wraith. That’s imprinting. You did everything I told you to do. I fucked up your life, Maya. That’s what I did. I didn’t save you.”
He sounded tired. Utterly tired. If she knew how, she would have wrapped her arms around his waist and held him, but she didn’t know how to even step closer to him without panic setting in.
“Wraith and I wanted to survive, Gorya. You gave that to us. I panicked for a minute when I thought you might have certain expectations from me, but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy various aspects of my life.”
Did she? She considered the truth of that statement. She was the ultimate liar. A perfect deceiver. She lied so much she didn’t know if she even told the truth to herself.
“I don’t have expectations of anyone, Maya.” Gorya’s voice had gone back to that low, compelling timbre that he used all the time, indicating he was completely under control again.