Danae’s POV
Something in Galen’s voice had changed.
Awkwardness beneath the anger, as though an unwelcome thought had just occurred to him.
I let my eyelids part a fraction.
His face was strangely tight.
“An accident?” Eirwen’s voice lifted.
“Galen, she could have died.”
“Keep it down.
Stop being dramatic.
She’s going to be fine.”
The indifference stung through the last of my drowsiness.
I opened my eyes and shifted against the bed.
He turned immediately.
“Danae?
You’re awake.”
Concern replaced irritation so quickly I might have imagined the first expression if I hadn’t been watching.
I nodded faintly and took in the hospital room as he hurried over and caught my hand.
I made myself leave it in his.
Not yet.
“How do you feel, babe?”
His thumb moved over the back of my hand.
Once, that gesture would have comforted me.
Now it made my skin crawl.
“Awful.” My voice was rough.
“Can I have water?”
Eirwen filled a cup from the plastic pitcher and brought it to me.
I drank slowly, using those few moments to gather myself.
There was something I needed to do, and fear couldn’t be allowed to do the speaking.
“Galen.
Hold me, please.”
Surprise flickered across his face.
Then came the softness I could finally recognize as practiced.
“Of course.”
He sat on the bed and drew me into his arms, careful of the IV.
I rested against his chest.
Beneath my ear, his heartbeat was strong and steady.
He had no idea what I was about to say.
“You’re safe,” he murmured into my hair.
“It’s all right now.”
I breathed in and gave voice to the words I’d been rehearsing.
“I, Danae Ashgrave, reject you, Galen Bryneholm, future Delta of the Ashmoon, as my mate.”
He went rigid.
The monitor’s beeping seemed suddenly too loud.
It quickened with my pulse while his arms stayed around me, no longer an embrace I could mistake for comfort.
“What did you say?”
His voice was barely above a whisper.
The danger in it was unmistakable.
I tried to pull back.
“You heard.
I reject the bond.”
A tremor passed through him.
Then a groan rose from deep in his chest, and his fingers clamped onto my arms as his body shook.
Pain.
Real pain.
When he looked down, something wild surrounded the amber of his eyes. This chapter is updated first at g.com.
His face twisted with it—hurt becoming fury almost before I could separate the two.
“You bitch.”
His grip tightened until it hurt.
“You don’t get away that easily.”
Fear shot through me.
I struggled against his hands.
“Let me go.”
“After everything I’ve done for you, you think you can reject me?”
The growl in his voice was barely human now.
“You’ll regret this.
We’re only getting started.”
“You’re hurting me, Galen.”
I stared into eyes that seemed to belong more to his wolf with every second.
“Good.
Maybe you’ll remember your place.”
Anger broke through the fear.
“My place was never being your puppet.
I know about Drusilla.
I know about your son.”
For a moment, his fingers loosened.
Surprise crossed his face before fury returned, and I seized that brief opening.
“Eirwen!
Get a nurse!”
She had been frozen beside us, horrified.
Now she lunged for the call button and pressed it again and again.
Galen shoved me away.
Pain shot through my already tender abdomen.
He rose beside the bed, shaking visibly, both fists clenched at his sides.
When he spoke again, his voice was low and deliberate.
“This isn’t finished.
There will be consequences.”