“I refuse to let you go.”

Fear shot through her as his hot breath fanned her ear. The towel had slipped to her waist and his chest plastered against her back.

“Obsidian, get off me.” Her voice shook.

He shifted his position over her and a big hand cupped her ass, rubbing. “I want you.”

“Stop it!” Her head snapped in his direction and she stared at him. “You’re scaring me. Do you get that?”

“I won’t hurt you, Alli.”

The sound of her name coming from his lips in that gruff tone made some of her fear ease. He was engaging in conversation and addressing her personally, something she figured he wouldn’t do if he couldn’t be reasoned with or had lost control. “You just tossed me halfway across a room.

That is not acceptable behavior!”

“The bed won’t hurt you. I wouldn’t have done it if I thought I’d miss.”

“You are missing the point. I want to leave and you can’t force me to stay here against my will.”

“I could but I will change your mind instead.”

The big hand on her ass massaged. “You will want me too. Calm and roll over. I want to taste you.”

She didn’t flip when he lifted off her to give her enough room to reposition. He sat back on his bent legs, waiting and watching her with beautiful dark eyes. His tongue darted out to wet his lips and she had to admit part of her was tempted.

The memory of how talented he was with oral sex made her libido spark some interest.

“No.” She tugged on the towel, raised it higher and curled onto her side to get a better view of him. “I’m not here for you to fuck at will just so you can avoid the reality of your situation.”

He frowned. “What does that mean?”

“You want to use sex as a way of avoiding facing the pain of losing your mate.”

His gaze drifted downward to linger over the curve of her ass. “I want you because you make me hard and you do things to me that are good.

46 has nothing to do with that.”

“She has everything to do with this. You need to grieve instead of trying to make me her replacement. You can’t just switch out people like T-shirts. I’m Dr. Allison Ann Baker. I’m thirtytwo years old and my favorite color is blue.”

Tears threatened but she blinked them back. “I deserve someone who wants me.”

Obsidian very slowly leaned forward and his palms settled on the bed next to her. He crawled forward but he didn’t touch her as he brought his face closer until his intense gaze hovered inches above her own.

“I understand what you said.” His chest expanded as he took a deep breath. “There is not one thing about you that reminds me of her.”

His voice deepened as he glanced at her hair.

“You are light where she was dark. Soft and so strange.” He held her gaze. “You are small, weak, and scare easily. She would have clawed me, bitten me and drawn blood by now. You huddle to appear smaller, attempting to escape my attention or perhaps gain my sympathy. She was a fierce fighter but you don’t know how to hit. Claw your hands and use your nails to inflict damage next time you wish to strike me. Smooth teeth would still hurt if you bite hard enough.”

Alli wasn’t sure if she should feel insulted or scared but one thing was for certain. His words wounded her. She wondered if he’d not only used her for sex but as a way to find retribution against the idiots who’d kept him locked up all his life.

The monsters who had killed his mate were out of his reach but she’d willingly agreed to stay in his room.

He peered down at her, perhaps waiting for a response, but he wasn’t getting one. She didn’t know what to say.

“My mate didn’t like me.” Emotion akin to pain flashed in his eyes. “She didn’t touch me unless she was in need and even then she never stroked my skin or slept against my side unless it was really cold or she was too drugged to move away when they brought her to me sick. I would hold her to give comfort.” He took a deep breath.

“She endured me and we learned to do tasks for each other in mutual need. She was mine and I was hers but she didn’t want to be with me. There was another male from before that she wanted.

They forced her into my room.” He withdrew from her physically and climbed off the bed. “I live with the knowledge that I never had deep feelings for her either. We weren’t true mates but instead forced together.”

The image he’d created in her mind was a heartbreaking one. She sat up, staring at him as he inched backward toward the bathroom. A thousand questions battled in her stunned mind while she tried to determine which one to ask first. The only thing she could piece together was that his mate had known someone before Obsidian and she must have loved him to reject any emotional tie to the attractive man before her. It had made their relationship cold and unfeeling.

“I did something to cause her death but I don’t know what it was. I must live with the guilt of how I failed her. You are not to replace 46. I am strangely drawn to you but I am free.” He snarled, flashing sharp teeth, as his hands fisted at his sides. “I will not hold another female to my side who doesn’t want me. There are no locks on these doors. Go, Alli. Flee.”

The last thing she wanted to do at that moment was to leave him. He was clearly upset and she couldn’t imagine how it would feel to be forced to live with someone who obviously had treated him badly. He’d mentioned violence when he said his mate hit him. Another set of questions arose, wondering exactly how dysfunctional their relationship had been.

“You didn’t cause her death.”

“They killed her in front of me as punishment.”

“They were assholes, Obsidian. They stole you, your mate and the two other New Species from Mercile to try to make money off you.

They—”

“You wanted to leave. Go!”

She wiggled enough to reach the edge of the bed and clutched the towel to keep it covering her as she stood on wobbly legs. Though he grew increasingly irate, she couldn’t leave him in that state.

“Some people are just cruel and the ones working for Mercile lacked moral compasses, Obsidian. They didn’t kill 46 because of anything you did or didn’t do. They probably just didn’t want to pay to feed her anymore. They knew they had arrest warrants on them and they couldn’t go home. That means they were desperate and low on money. Maybe they killed her to get even with all they felt they’d lost by pinning the blame on New Species but it was their own fault. Never yours. You were a victim and so was she.”

He glared at her while his fists remained balled at his sides.

She wondered if he understood what she was trying to tell him and decided to clarify. “What Mercile did to you was illegal, against the law, and they were looking at being punished for it.

An arrest warrant means all their money was frozen and the police were hunting for them.

They were fac—”

“I don’t want to hear. You don’t want me. That is all that matters. Go.”

If he only knew. She took a timid step closer.

“Let’s sit down and talk. Please?”

“Why do you want to sit? Do you think I can hear you better if my ears are closer to your height?” He was furious.

“No. I just thought it would be more comfortable.”

His arm raised and pointed at the door. “Go!”

“I’m not leaving you until we talk this out.”

Her life flashed before her eyes, panic instant when he lunged at her with an enraged expression. He was a New Species and his animal traits were closer to the surface than his human ones.

His hands gripped her upper arms but they weren’t crushing or painful. She stared up at him, mute, breathing rapidly as her heart pounded.

“Leave or tell me you want me to mount you.”

Those are my only options?

“Either you want me or you don’t.”

“Calm down, please,” she whispered. “I’m trying to make you feel better.”