Immortals After Dark 09 - Pleasure of a Dark Prince

you!”
    When she sidestepped him, he blocked her way. Between gritted teeth, she hissed, “Let me pass.”
    His crossed his arms over his chest. “Nay, Valkyrie, I think you’ll be stayin’ right—”
    A slap cracked across his cheek.
    “Bluidy hell, woman! Have it your way! You’d rather bemoan what you’ve lost than seize what we could have together? Then to hell with you! I’ve chased you over the world, protected you, offered everything I am to you. No longer.
I’ve reached my end
.” He threw the bow and quiver at her feet. “For once, you’re going to watch my back as I leave you behind.”
    Stalking away from her, he headed toward the levee. And she said nothing. He hadn’t expected her to beg for him to return. But he’d hoped….
    Five minutes passed, then ten, and still she didn’t run after him. She truly was going to let this end.
Just like that.
    Crazed, cursing to himself, Garreth slashed his claws along tree trunks.
    I’ll leave her arse in the goddamned jungle! I’m done!
    He would return to Kinevane, spend some real time with his brother and sister-in-law. Help Lachlain acquire a mortal child for Emma.
    Garreth could go back to his clan, see his kinsmenfor the first time in a year. He could play a bluidy game of rugby and shag nymphs without cease.
    He reached the pile of rocks against one of the levee walls, began climbing. As he ascended, his mind was a riot of conflicting thoughts.
    How easy it would be if his feelings could turn to hate—as hers obviously had. Hate would have to be less painful than this obsession with her. To
not
feel this gnawing lack each minute of the day….
    Yet then he frowned. Lucia might be acting as if she despised him now. But before, she’d shown she cared for him again and again. He recalled her worry as he’d been preparing to swim to the
Barão
or when she’d been about to dive into the water after him. Even her own words:
“…the more I like you, the less I want you to know my secrets.”
    At the top of the levee wall, unable to help himself, he glanced back down. In the far distance, he spied Lucia on her knees crying. Exhaling a breath, he rubbed his aching chest. He never could stand the sight of her tears.
    Damn that female!
It seemed that when he’d told her he was done, he’d just been talking a big game. Because the truth was…
    “She’s my lass,” he muttered.
    For better or worse. I could never leave her.
    His heart heavy with regret, he began making his way back to her—not seeing the movement in the brush until it was too late.

FORTY-ONE

    Still in shock, unable to stop shuddering, Lucia stared at her bow as if she were staring at her severed arm, knowing it would
never
grow back.
    Sorrow suffused her, despair ripping at her.
I’m nothing. I have nothing to offer the world. Nothing that makes me different.
Earlier, Lucia had feared that she’d go from being the Archer to the Lykae’s Mate. Now she wasn’t even that!
    When MacRieve had left her, she’d sunk to the ground, putting her head in her hands to cry. Twelve months ago, she’d predicted he would be the key to her ruin. She’d been right.
    Is he really leaving me?
Yes, he’d meant it. They’d just had incredible, mind-blowing sex, and then she’d started attacking him.
    But she’d never been so furious, had never felt so used. Because of him, she was altered forever, yet she couldn’t say the same about him. He’d claimed her— had fulfilled at least that primal Lykae need—so it was possible that he could content himself with others now. And since his brother had reclaimed the throne, Garreth could go back to being the Dark Prince, a womanizing brawler.
    For Lucia, there was no going back to her life before MacRieve.
    And now I’ve lost him.
He’d warned her that one day he’d hit his limit. Today, he had. Reasonable, rational Lucia cried harder.
    What was worse? Knowing that she’d lost him? Or that she might miss him more than her archery…?
    Suddenly her ears twitched. She heard a curt yell, jerked her face up. It sounded like MacRieve.
    But it had also sounded like he’d been
cut off
.
    Darting to her feet, Lucia ran her arm over her face and peered around. Sunlight pricked the canopy above, casting strange shadows from the tomb and the lofty statues.
    She gazed up, far off in the distance, and saw movement. Yes, up on the levee, perhaps a mile away.
    Wait…
At first, Lucia didn’t believe what she was seeing. Tears made her vision