Chapter 0229

“Is that so?” Julian’s eyebrow arched sharply. He brought his fingers to his lips, tasting the lingering evidence of my arousal.

“You’ve made your intentions perfectly clear. You want me as your mate.” I muttered, yanking on a pair of training leggings. “I’m not prepared.”

Damn. Poor word choice.

“Every day you delay my claim, we gamble with fate. We risk encountering our true destined mates. Then it’s over. When will you be ready, Seraphina? Six months? A year? Five? You know we are good together.”

“Back off!” I snarled, my teeth clenched. “And I’ve searched the entire world! My true mate doesn’t exist!”

“Are you frightened? Is that it?”

I froze mid-motion, pulling my workout top over my head. “Frightened? You think I’m scared?”

“Something is holding you back!” His voice snapped like a whip. “Every time I believe this is real. That I’ve finally found someone I can be with. You throw it all back in my face.”

“Alright, let’s say you mark me. What happens when I die? My work doesn’t guarantee my survival, Julian. You could mark me tonight, and I could be dead tomorrow. Do you truly want to lose another mate?”

I knew I was deflecting. But he wasn’t ready for the raw truth. I snatched my yoga mat and strode purposefully toward the door.

“Where are you going?” he demanded.

“To fucking work out. Is that acceptable to you?!” My anger was a live wire. Why did he always push? Why did I constantly let him cross every line?

Any other man would be in a grave if he tried half the things Julian did.

I unfurled the mat with a sharp flick. He appeared instantly. Leaning naked against the doorframe, his muscular arms crossed over his broad chest.

“I make you feel something you’ve never felt before. Don’t I?”

I jabbed my headphones toward him and yanked them over my head, cutting him off. But he didn’t leave.

Ten minutes into my yoga flow, I ripped the headphones off. “You think you know everything, Julian.”

“I never said I did.” He frowned deeply. “I don’t understand your resistance. We want the same things. We are good together. I know the mere thought of me with someone else puts you in a dark mood. That’s why you walk away.”

“No, it’s not.”

“Then what aren’t you telling me? I can handle it. I’m sure I can. Is it related to Athena and your father?”

“No.”

His brow furrowed as he searched for another logical explanation. The tragic part was, he’d missed every clue. Clues I hadn’t deliberately shared, but ones that had slipped out during other conversations.

He stepped closer, taking my hands in his. “I can handle it. Whatever it is. We can solve it together, if it means you are finally mine and I am yours.”

I stepped back, my stomach twisting into familiar, painful knots—a feeling I hadn’t known since childhood. He was the only one who could evoke this in me. The only person who saw past my hardened shell.

“You should probably put some clothes on,” I sighed. Someone would find out eventually. It might as well be him.

“I’m fine.” He moved to sit his bare ass on my sofa.

“You’ll probably want to leave after this. So you might as well be prepared.”

He started to speak, then stopped himself. He retreated to the bedroom. He returned wearing a white tee and grey sweatpants. He settled onto the sofa with an eager smile, like a child waiting for Santa.

“Julian, haven’t you ever wondered how I know it’s so easy to kill Rogues?”

“I assumed it was from years of intense training and practice.”

I tried a different approach. “You asked me why I never shift.”

“You mentioned control.”

Could he truly be this blind to what I was implying?

“Julian, I was a Rogue.”