He shook his head slowly and took another step toward her.
Teagan retreated two steps, trying to catch her breath. Why couldn’t she just faint and get out of the situation? Terror was clawing at her. Sheer terror.
“What you did was wrong, Andre. You understand that, don’t you? I have the right to make up my own mind about something this huge. You can’t do that kind of thing.”
“It is not wrong in my world, Teagan. There are reasons the binding words are imprinted on the male of my species before birth. We must bind our lifemate to us. Without her, we can become the undead. A horrific monster with no soul, one who only seeks to inflict as much pain and death on everyone as possible.”
She put her hands over her ears and shook her head. “Stop it. I mean it. You aren’t even sorry you did this.”
“I am sorry you suffered because of my actions,” Andre said.
His voice, silk and velvet, penetrated right through her hands to her ears and managed to enter her body that way. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t even think. All along, she’d believed he could do anything—even reverse what he’d done. She wanted to scream.
“Do you even know what you’ve done to me? Without asking? Without my permission. I wasn’t born in the century you were born in.” She wanted to run. She was going to run, to outrun what she’d become. “I’m not what you obviously need or want. My man doesn’t make decisions for me. Certainly not one like this.”
He kept coming no matter how far she backed up, so she did the only thing left to her—she ducked under his arm and sprinted across the cave floor. She’d never moved so fast in her life. She actually ran with blurring speed. Phenomenal speed. She’d always been dismal at running, although she did it to stay in shape, but still, this was lightning fast.
Even her speed didn’t save her. Andre hooked his arm around her waist, bringing her to an abrupt halt. She kicked him as hard as she could in the shins, connecting. Pain raced through her foot right up her own shin. Andre retaliated by swinging her off her feet and cradling her against his chest. She absolutely refused to be so undignified as to claw him in the face, even though she wanted to.
“Calm down. I am not going to allow you to hurt yourself.”
“Don’t say allow. Haven’t you heard one single thing I’ve said to you?” She wanted to cry. The lump in her throat choked her but she wasn’t going to cry in front of him. “I’m over this relationship. I mean it, Andre. I’m so breaking up with you. You aren’t at all the man I thought you were.”
He winced at that. Not physically, but she knew she’d scored when he flinched in his mind.
“I realize this is extremely difficult for you to process . . .”
“You think? Put me down. I’m totally serious, Andre. We are over. You go your way, I’ll go mine. I just hope Grandma Trixie doesn’t stake me before I can explain to her why I need to drink her blood and sleep in the basement.” She glared at him. “And just who is responsible.”
“No one is going to stake you, csitri.”
There was his voice again. Soft. Gentle. Tender even. Mixed with just a little amusement, which fired her temper all over again.
“Don’t you dare laugh at me. God, Andre, don’t you see what you’ve done? I’m not me anymore. I don’t want this. I would have stayed with you, given you everything, and that was a gift to you. I gave myself to you. You took something you shouldn’t have and it’s no longer a gift.”
He set her on her feet against the far wall, caging her in with his larger frame and his hands on either side of her so there was no escape.
“You did give yourself to me. You put yourself into my keeping. I told you I would protect you, Teagan. It is impossible to protect you when I am in the ground and you are running around. Anything can happen to you. I would not survive your loss.”
“You didn’t have the right,” she whispered. “I can’t accept this. I can’t. You can’t take away my freedom.”
“You do not understand the concept of lifemates. We are bound together. Your soul is the other half of mine and we’re one now. Complete.” He cupped her chin in his hand, leaning into her so there was no possibility of her moving away from him. His thumb caressed the soft skin of her face. “I tried to explain as best I could, Teagan. I showed you what I have never shared with any other. You needed to know who I am and why I do the things I do.”
“That’s well and good for you, Andre, but it’s still selfish. You took away my decisions and you didn’t care how I would feel.”
“Is that what you really think, sivamet?” His eyes blazed down into hers. “You are always my first thought. Always. I am telling you and I want you in my mind. I want you to hear what I say and feel it and know it is the truth. It is impossible for me to allow you to put yourself in danger. Physically, mentally and emotionally impossible. I am not a modern man. I do not know the rules of your world.” Nor do I want to. “I live in my world, and it is a dangerous one.”
Nor do I want to. She caught that fleeting thought and jerked her head away from the warmth of his caressing hand. She shoved at his chest. “I caught that. You don’t want to know the rules of my world. The one I lived in. Grew up in. Have family that means the world to me. I’ve traveled all over the world by myself or with a few girlfriends, hiking and climbing and making my own decisions.”