Chapter 24 Stay With Me

• Lucian p.o.v
• How could she say she wants to go back? The words echoed in my mind, sharp and biting, driving me to the edge of madness. With a guttural roar, I lashed out, sweeping the books off my library table in a storm of fury. Pages scattered across the room, ancient bindings snapped, but I didn't care. I could barely see past the red haze clouding my vision. Arabelle wanted to return to *him*, to that wretched life she had sworn to. How could she not remember? How could she not see what I saw?
• I gripped the edge of the table until my knuckles turned white, trying to quell the beast inside me, but it wouldn't be tamed. The mate bond pulsed through me, more intense with every passing day. It was all-consuming, an unbreakable tether that connected me to her, no matter how much I tried to deny it. The very idea of her being with someone else-no, being with *him*-made my blood boil.