Primal Heat by Crystal Jordan Page B

fingers to her temples. “Stop. It. Now.”
    His gaze flashed with wild green sparks. His voice was ragged with hurt, the usual coldness wiped away. “For the love of Anun, woman, I’ve done nothing to you that you didn’t want.”
    â€œAll those nights—”
    He cut her off. “Were shared dreams between two willing minds. I no more controlled them than you did. If you really think I could ever hurt you, why would you trust me to help you with Arthur? Why me? Why not one of the dozen other Kith you’ve met? Why not the emperor himself?”
    â€œI…”
    He hissed at her, fangs bared. He turned away, stalking in the direction of their campfire. She couldn’t let him leave, not like this. The pain was too evident, too raw to ignore. It was even worse than when he’d told her about his family. This was a fresh wound, one she’d caused. A tormented man, an injured animal. It should have scared her, the angry beast, but it didn’t. Whatever she might doubt about him, she knew he’d never hurt her, no matter which of his forms he was in—or even if he was somewhere in between as he seemed to be now. This side of him called to her in a way the cool, controlled lord never had. That was what scared her. But it didn’t matter. She couldn’t let him go when he was hurting, when she’d been responsible for his pain.
    She owed him that much. He’d saved her life.
    Â 
    He’d failed.
    It twisted through him, a dark ugliness that threatened to drag him under. He could feel the control slipping through his fingers as the feeling ate at him. His cock ached with the desire Bren had awakened in him—even the echo of pain from her kick didn’t quell his lust. At the same time, his flesh throbbed around the gunshot wound in an agonizing symphony that ricocheted through his brain. It did nothing to help him hold on to any kind of self-discipline. It also didn’t keep the self-recrimination at bay.
    He’d failed her, failed to sense the danger, failed to keep himself alert enough to notice they would soon be under attack. He’d let himself be distracted by the hunt for food, let the beast take over. Then beast and man had both been distracted by the old misery of his family’s loss and the overwhelming connection with Bren.
    It had nearly gotten her murdered. A split second slower and that bullet would have hit her square in the chest. The boy had aimed to kill. A snarl reverberated in his chest, the beast clawing for freedom, wanting to shred the one who’d threatened Bren. The only way to control the feline was to open the floodgates on his psychic power. Maintain the balance by loosing the reins on both.
    It shuddered through him like electricity, sizzling and sparking. He held on with the tips of his claws, praying to Anun that his people would come looking soon. It might be another day before they did. He’d gone along with Bren’s excuse of a sexual rendezvous, and no one was likely to want to interrupt him unless they were certain something had gone wrong. Kith never reacted well to harnessing their appetites, especially those as powerful as Farid.
    He shook away the thoughts, trying to focus and yet…not focus at the same time. He’d likely zero in on the only person still moving besides him. Bren. There was only one logical conclusion to what would happen if he focused on her. Bonding, with or without her consent. And he could never let his One that close. To let a One in was to love them, to love them was to lose them. He refused to lose another person he loved, so he would never love again. He had his friends, his distant relatives, and none of them owned a piece of his soul. There was no one he couldn’t live without if he had to. Bren wouldn’t own his soul, either. He could want her, but he couldn’t keep her. He couldn’t even want to keep her.
    So he walked away.
    â€œArjun,