Chapter 21

"I've known for several months," he snarled, his face inches from mine, yet I couldn't tear my gaze from the mark, as if willing it to disappear. "Just imagine my disgust when I discovered, after my shift, that you are destined to be my mate. How could a weak and disgraceful creature like you ever be chosen to stand beside me?"

In that moment, he pressed harder against the wall, nearly lifting me off the ground with his arm constricting my neck. Only then was I able to meet his icy gaze.

Those eyes may have appeared like shards of ice, but they burned with a fiery rage and hatred I had never encountered before. Dread filled my chest, making it difficult to breathe. Was it him suffocating me with his brutal grip, or my own terror tightening around my throat?

"I would never accept you as my mate," he spat the last word in my face, and I would have agreed wholeheartedly if I weren't on the verge of losing consciousness.

He seemed utterly oblivious as he pressed