Fucking.
Fighting.
Talking.
Bonding.
That was mating heat.
Where the hell was the mating every other Breed experiencing it got to have, yet it seemed was being denied him?
It wasn’t that he wasn’t experiencing it, because God knew he was.
His tongue was so damned swollen it felt like a f**king golf ball was wedged beneath his tongue on each side. The heavy throb of the fluid contained within it was almost painful, and each small droplet of the moisture that pushed free of it to infuse his system was torturous in its effect on his body.
His c**k was so swollen and hard it was damned near unbearable. The heavy veins pulsed with blood and lust, tightening to the point that he knew there would be no ease without the touch of his mate. And that touch didn’t seem forthcoming. The lust that should have been burning to tortured hunger inside her wasn’t happening.
At least, it hadn’t been happening for the past two days or nights.
Confusion, fear and a latent pain filled his mate’s mind to the point that it seemed there was no room for lust. That inner focus, confusion and fear that swirled through her senses was so intense that he couldn’t break through it.
And she refused to discuss it.
She wouldn’t consider discussing her past, the doubts he had sensed inside her concerning who she was, or what she felt or remembered now.
And he blamed Jonas for that. Blamed him for it to the point that he could barely converse with the man civilly. If Jonas had kept his damned plan for betraying Liza to himself, then perhaps, Stygian thought, he would have had a chance to bind his mate to his heart and a chance to help her through the emotionally complex situation she was now facing.
Stygian wanted nothing more than to touch his mate, to kiss her. To love her.
To ease the fear and uncertainty tearing her apart, which was keeping her out of his arms.
The bonding that came with the mating heat was something he had looked forward to in the years since he’d learned of the phenomenon. That chance to so be a part of a woman; her heart, her soul, her life; that he knew he was no longer a singular person, but rather one part of a whole. Fused so tightly to his mate that their souls were one entity.
Yet, that wasn’t there with himself and Liza.
As though the mating heat itself had suddenly stalled halfway through the process.
He could smell her need; it was there, buried beneath her confusion. He could smell her arousal, and just a hint of the mating heat, but it was the same as it had been when he’d felt her retreat so far inside herself that he wasn’t certain how to find her.
The spiritual distance was no longer there, as it had been before. Instead, it seemed all the emotions, the fear, the pain and confusion that she had kept at bay over the years were tearing through her instead. And he had no idea how to help her. No idea how to bring her back to him.
Nothing he’d tried had worked in the past two days.
She didn’t rise to any verbal sparring he attempted.
She evaded his touch and asked for time with such deepening pain that pulling back to give her that time was killing him.
She was holding herself in such lockdown that he knew that finding the key to release whatever she was fighting to hide within herself might be impossible.
And he knew, the animal instincts that governed him knew, if he didn’t do something soon, he might well lose her forever.
Those animal instincts were raging. As though the animal he could have been was pacing furiously inside him, the tension from the situation building to the point that release, in some form, was becoming a necessity.
Pacing the sitting room restlessly, he turned to her at the sound of the bedroom door opening, his gaze narrowing on the dove gray cotton lounge pants and matching camisole.
The tank top smoothed over her pert br**sts, hugging the lush curves just enough to cause his mouth to water. And f**k him, but her ni**les were hard. Peaked and swollen beneath her bra, pointing against the lace beneath and refusing to hide from his gaze.
The need to lick those hard little points and burn the tender nerve endings with the hormone swelling his tongue was nearly irresistible.