Chapter 11 #2
There was no way this woman was talking about what I thought she was talking about, right?
I spun around, and a second later, Athena ran directly into my chest. She gripped my biceps with her sweaty hands to keep herself upright.
The woman keeping her company let out a squeal.
“Something you’d like to discuss with me?” I breathed, looking between them.
Sighing, Athena doubled over, bracing her hands on her knees.
The other girl went wide-eyed. “N-no,” she stuttered, breathing heavily. “I was just running some ideas by Athena. It was nothing.”
“Nothing?” I took a step toward her. The woman was small. Now that I was closer, I recognized her as the girl who’d been linked on the other side of Athena in the water that first day of training. She’d helped her.
But that didn’t mean we could trust her. If anything, it made me suspicious. It made me wonder if she’d planted herself there on purpose.
“A larger claiming group? Are you seriously considering that Athena—my claimed—claim with someone else?”
“No, it’s not like that!” The girl cowered.
“Oh, it’s not?” I loomed closer, reveling in the way she shrank further. “Then tell me. What is it like?”
Athena muttered about how annoying I was, but I ignored it.
“It was just an idea, okay?” The girl put her hands up and slowly inched past me, like if she moved slowly, I might not notice.
I let her go, but I didn’t miss the look she shot Athena before she picked up her pace again and caught up with a small group down the grassy path.
“Do you really have to be an asshole to everyone?” Athena breathed. “Willow is nice! She was just trying to help!”
A bark of a laugh escaped me. “Help? Have you lost your fucking mind?”
She gaped at me. “What?”
“I heard what Willow was saying. She wants you to join her claimed pair.”
Athena smiled, finally straightening up from her doubled-over position.
“What?” I asked. “What’s so funny?”
“You’re jealous,” she taunted. “You’re jealous a lot, actually. Forgive me if I find humor in that.”
My face flamed, and not because of the run. “This isn’t jealousy.”
Her brows jumped to her hairline. “It sure seems like it.”
“It isn’t even possible for a claimed pair to claim with someone else, so don’t even fucking think about it.” I turned my back and strode away.
“That’s not what Willow said!” she called after me.
Yeah. This girl was fucking dead. I turned around again. “And what, exactly, did Willow tell you?”
“She said I could join her claimed group. A group of three. I didn’t get all the details, but it seemed like she was trying to recruit me.”
“That’s fucking ridiculous.”
“That they’d want to recruit me?” She cocked her head, hands on her hips. Her dark hair clung to the sweat at her temples. Her usually pale skin was flushed, and her eyes were lit up—the way they always lit up when she was pissing me off. “Or that I might actually claim with someone else?”
Now it was my turn to laugh. The sound was a little too high-pitched and foreign. Like it didn’t belong to me.
No—it belonged to my sick, twisted alter ego. The version of me who would burn the whole fucking world to the ground if it meant having Athena’s body writhing beneath mine again.
If it meant feeling her lips on mine.
If it meant having her. All of her.
I closed the distance between us in two swift strides and cuffed her neck. My hold was tight enough to show her I was serious, but I didn’t constrict her airflow. “Say one more thing about claiming with someone else,” I growled.
She sucked in a breath. “Why?” Even with my hand around her throat, she smiled. “You want to punish me?”
Yes. I wanted to punish her. I would show her exactly why she would never belong to anyone else.
She. Was. Mine.
But those words weren’t powerful enough for the possessiveness that had taken over.
My feelings for her were more than ownership.
Fuck.
My gut plummeted.
Feelings for her?
I was beyond denying that now. But I still had to handle them. I’d continue to keep them in control.
Control or not, the idea of her being with another claimed group nearly caused my heart to explode.
So if I had to punish her to set her straight, I would.
I tightened my hand on her throat and yanked her closer. The move forced her onto her toes and had her clutching my body with her perfect, delicate hands.
And then—because I was a monstrous maniac—I brought my mouth to her neck, and I licked a long trail over the throbbing vein there, relishing the taste of her sweat.
She sucked in a breath and her hands tightened on my chest.
I lingered there, my tongue on her skin. In my arms like that, she was at my mercy. But she was always at my mercy, wasn't she? She just forgot that part sometimes.
I dragged my teeth over her sensitive skin, and even though the sun baked down on us, she shivered.
“Yes, Athena.” I nipped the bottom of her earlobe. “I plan to punish you.”
She shuddered, every bit of that movement branding itself into my memory forever.
Then I released her and took off down the path.
Right.
Running. That’s what I was supposed to be doing.
Controlling my thoughts.
Controlling my urges.
Yeah. I was totally, utterly fucked.