Varek’s POV
The simple fact that I’d acknowledged her in public meant the world to her.
Which was a shame.
Because now I had to humiliate her in it.
“Varek.” She said my name like a caress and licked her lips—cherry-red, the exact shade of that fiery hair.
“What is it?”
“We need to talk,” I said, out of patience.
“About?”
I didn’t waste breath circling it.
“Stop spreading rumors about us.
We are not getting back together.”
“Rumors?” The smirk fell away.
“I haven’t said one thing that isn’t true.
You’ve been fucking me.
Haven’t you?”
My jaw clenched.
I hated how neatly she twisted it to cast me as the villain.
We’d had an agreement.
“That doesn’t mean we’re getting back together.
And you know it.”
Sabrina rolled her eyes and closed the distance until she was all but pressed against me.
“What’s gotten into you lately?” she whispered, suspicion sharpening every word.
Was it really that obvious?
Every muscle in my body drew tight at the question.
I didn’t let a flicker of it reach my face.
“Nothing,” I hissed.
“I’m just done with your bullshit.”
A single eye twitched.
“Because there’s someone else.
Isn’t there?”
I stared her down, wanting the conversation dead where it stood.
I knew what Sabrina turned into when the possessiveness took hold.
She was well aware she wasn’t the only one who kept my bed warm—but she was the only one I’d ever taken more than once.
And she’d built a whole crown out of that fact.
The last time she caught wind of a girl I’d been with twice, she made that girl’s life a living hell.
Tormented her until she withdrew from the academy for good.
The stunt cost Sabrina her own freshman year—she’d had to repeat it.
Judging by the woman in front of me, the lesson hadn’t taken.
I didn’t let myself imagine what she’d do if she ever learned about the bond.
About four-eyes.
It would end in blood.
Sabrina’s.
Because if she moved against my mate, the beast would make me kill her—and some cold, honest part of me knew I’d let him.
Fuck.
The thought sat there, ugly and certain, and for the first time I let myself see how far off the rails I’d already gone.
That was the thing that scared me.
Not Sabrina.
Me.
Something was seriously wrong with me.
“Who’s the girl, Ky?”
“Drop it,” I said, cold.
“Remember what happened the last time you pushed me?”
Sabrina swallowed, though her eyes held no fear.
“I’ll never let you be with anyone else, Ky.” She lifted her chin.
“If I can’t have you, no one can.”
She didn’t wait for an answer.
She turned on her heel and walked off.
Her blood boiled mine.
The beast lunged inside my ribs, roaring to chase her down, to carve the challenge out of her once and for all.
My hands shook.
My vision smeared at the edges.
For one long second, tearing her apart looked genuinely tempting.
Before I could tip over that edge, something caught my eye and dragged me back to myself.
Four-eyes.
Drifting past the entrance with her friend.
She had no idea I was there.
She was laughing, light and open, like she didn’t carry a single worry in the world.
As if she hadn’t come knocking at my door the night before to reject me.
The sound of that laugh grated against my teeth.
She had no right to feel that safe, that untouched, that content.
I pulled in her lingering scent and hated that I wondered whether she’d caught mine.
Either she was pretending not to feel me there, or she was too weak to sense it at all.
Either way, it was just one more reminder: she was nothing but a helpless, weak little puppy.
I hated everything about her.
I hated that she’d taken up space in my head.
Hated that sweet scent.
Hated that, out of every soul in the universe, she was the one fate had chained to me.
I hated it.