Now there were the smallest lines at the corners of his eyes that had nothing to do with age or the sun. His features weren’t lined, but the sharp definition hinted at the brutality of the life he’d lived for so long.
He’d changed so much. Over the course of the past weeks she’d learned that those changes went far deeper than she might guess as well. The changes weren’t just physical either. He wasn’t harder just on the outside, but on the inside as well, except where it came to her. He still treated her with a gentleness she knew was completely alien to him.
And he belonged to her on a level she’d never questioned, even as a child. As an adult, so many things made more sense, and yet others were so much more complicated. And there was one question she had to have the answer to.
“Did you ever love me?” she whispered, remembering his claim that he never had. “Or have you always just claimed me?”
If his features could have hardened further, they did, and she knew that flash of uncertainty she thought gleamed for a moment in his gaze had to be an illusion. Graeme was never uncertain.
“You’re mine,” he stated and there was no uncertainty at all, not in his voice or in his gaze. “And I would suggest you never forget that.”
He claimed her.
She rose slowly from the chair.
“I would have thought you loved me,” she said softly, the pain that sliced at her more than she would have expected.
“What do I know of love, Cat?” he asked her then, drawing her gaze back to his as he watched her with a hint of confusion. “What the world calls love, I highly discount. There’s no loyalty in it, no drive to hold on to what they claim once that haze of lust dissipates. If that’s love, then why would you want it?”
“That isn’t love.” She had to force the words out. “No more than possession is love, Graeme. No more than Mating Heat is love. Without real love, what separates possession from obsession, and Mating Heat from biological rape? Mating Heat can begin without love, but like lust, it won’t bind mates without love.”
“And what makes you a fucking expert on love, Cat?” he bit out, pushing his fingers through his hair in frustration. “When did Webster contact you for the definition?”
“When you decided I was your mate,” she snapped back, one hand going to her hip as the dominance he displayed had her shoulders straightening and determination hardening her tone. “I’m far more an expert on it than you evidently, Graeme, because at least I recognize it when I feel it.”
“And just who did you recognize it with?” Pure fury lit his eyes.
First that wild green spread across his eyes, obliterating the whites, then within a heartbeat later the tiny flecks of amber gold began to fill it as shadowed stripes began marring his face and neck.
“With you,” she all but yelled. “Unfortunately loving you now does me about as much good as it did when I was twelve. And you include me in about as much of your life now as you did then.” Stepping closer, glaring up at him, she could feel the tips of her claws flexing, aching to emerge. “When I was twelve you pushed me aside to fight alone and left my protection to others, and now, other than when you need to fuck, you push me aside to fight with Khi or Lobo or Rule or whoever else you decide is strong enough to stand at your side. When will you consider me your partner rather than your damned fuck toy?”
“When I’m not in danger of losing my fucking sanity at the thought of a scratch on your soft skin,” he snarled back at her, head lowering until they were snarling at each other, nose to nose. “I taught you to fight to aid in your protection. Not to aid in my battles.”
“If I can’t fight with you, then I don’t want to fuck with you,” she sneered up at him. “Go on to your little meeting, Bengal boy.” She waved toward the main estate with a curl of her lip. “Go have fun with the big dogs. See how much good they do you when that hard cock of yours needs attention, because I won’t give you the satisfaction of taking care of it.”
Swinging around to stomp away from him, she found herself pulled up short by firm fingers snagging her wrist, manacling it and pulling her around to face him once more.
“You are my mate,” he reminded her, the gleaming brilliance of that fierce green swirling with glints of amber fury. “You can claim you’ll deny me all you want, but the heat will always bring you back to me, Cat.”
“Will it?” she asked tightly, her breathing harsh, anger and need and far too much love for such an arrogant beast raging inside her. “We both know exactly how stubborn I can be, don’t we, Graeme. Let’s see which is stronger. My determination or some biological lust that lacks any basis in emotion. Which one will win, Graeme?”