He was safe and that was all that mattered.
Sam had just reached her room when she felt her hand beginning to burn. Hissing, she blew air across her palm, trying to soothe it.
Just when she was ready to scream from the pain, it stopped burning.
To her instant horror, she watched as a design drew itself across her flesh. There in her palm was a mark that looked like a tribal bear claw.
Oh shit.
She was mated....
Chapter 19
Dev came awake to a scorching hot pain. At first he thought he was under attack, until he realized it was only his palm that hurt. Scowling, he shook his hand, then looked at it to see what he'd done to it.
His stomach drew tight. No...
It wasn't possible. It just wasn't possible.
Yet he couldn't deny what he saw. There in his palm was the one thing he'd waited a lifetime to see.
His mating mark.
And there was no doubt who his mate had to be. He hadn't been with anyone else in months. How could this be? Sam was a Dark-Hunter. How could he be mated to one? No Were-Hunter ever in their entire history had been mated to a Dark-Hunter.
"You bitches are crazy." The Fates had to be. Why else mate him to Sam?
Artemis would have a fit when she found out.
Incredulous, he wanted to go to Sam, but he knew better. She'd tossed him out and she wasn't the kind of woman a man went to. At least not without a Kevlar cup.
His phone rang.
He reached for it and flipped it open without checking the ID.
"Dev?"
He went hard at the sound of Sam's voice. "Hey."
She hesitated before she spoke again. "I...There's...um..."
He understood the panic he heard in her voice. He felt it too. Closing his palm so that he'd feel closer to her, he licked his lips. "You have a mark on your palm that looks like a bear claw."
"Yes. Does this mean what I think it does?"
He took a long, deep breath before he answered and tensed in trepidation of how she'd react. "Yeah."
She sucked her breath in sharply. "We can't do this, Dev. You know we can't."
He winced at the determination he heard in her voice. "You know I can't force you." Mating was always up to the female. "But if you reject me, you might as well kill me."
"Dev!"
He clenched his teeth. "I'm not a eunuch, Sam. I don't want to live in celibacy for the rest of my life. I'd rather be dead."
"Don't be so fatalistic. It's just sex. You can live without it. Trust me."
She didn't understand what he was trying to say. It wasn't just the sex. It was knowing that she was his mate and that he was forbidden to be with her that would ruin him. Were-Hunters were always insanely protective over their mates. They never liked to be apart.
Knowing she was out there alone...
It would kill him.
Sam let out a tiny breath. "How long do we have to decide this?"
"Three weeks." After that, he'd be impotent. Gah...
"Okay. I need to think about this."
Take your time, by all means. Not like you're the one who's going to be impotent. What ever you do, think about yourself first. He had to bite his tongue to keep from saying that out loud. But if he did, then he'd be as selfish as he was accusing her and that he'd never do.
"You know where I am, Sam."
"Okay. I'll talk to you later."
He turned his phone off and hung his head in his hands as his emotions overwhelmed him. The bear inside him wanted to go over to Nick's and take her whether she wanted it or not. The man knew he couldn't. The Fates didn't work that way. This was completely in her hands and there was nothing he could do except wait.
I hate you three bitches. May you rot in Tartarus.
The Greek goddess Atropos pulled back from the loom where she and her two sisters wove the lives of those they were responsible for. As the three Fates, each of them had a job to perform. Her sister Lachesis was responsible for assigning the length of a person's life. Clotho spun the events that shaped and broke those lives.
And Atropos was the one who ended them. She had the final say....
At least so long as their brother didn't interfere. Bastard.
Not wanting to think about that, she looked up at Lazaros who watched her in silence. "It's done. They're mated."
Lazaros smiled in satisfaction. "I can't thank you enough, little cousin. You are truly a lifesaver."
What an ironic thing to say to the one whose prime responsibility was death. "I don't see how. But if Artemis has anything to say--"
"She won't. I promise. And if she should, I will take care of it." He kissed her hand. "Now I have one last favor to ask."
"And that is?"
He plucked at the strand on the loom that represented the Dark-Huntress Samia's life. "Don't cut this thread until I tell you to." Because Sam wouldn't be able to die until Atropos cut it. So long as it was unsevered, he could torture Sam to his heart's content.
She inclined her head to him. "As you wish, coz. I'll leave it until you've had your fun."
He squeezed her hand before he released it. There were times when being related to the Fates was a good thing.
Today it was more than good.