Ruthlessly.
With an ease that was as terrifying as it was enticing.
“I won’t let anyone else write my fate,” I said, forcing steel into my voice. “Not Lucian. Not you. Not her.”
He studied me.
For once, he didn’t immediately push back.
Slowly, he nodded.
“Good,” he said. “Hold that line. You’ll need it.”
His acceptance startled me.
It also made the next thing he said land harder.
“But understand this,” Kade went on, voice dropping. “If he breaks you again—”
“He won’t,” I cut in.
“If he *does,*” Kade repeated, relentless, “if he loses his grip and you end up bleeding at his feet, I will kill him.”
The air seemed too thin.
I stared at him.
He didn’t look like he was bluffing.
He looked like he was stating a simple, deadly fact.
“Curse or no curse,” he said. “Alpha or no, Alph
