Bloodline Alchemy: A Young Adult Urban Fantasy Academy Novel (Bloodline Academy Book 6), Lan Chan [free ebook reader for android TXT] 📗

words for the hurt that suddenly speared through my chest. If you accept the mating link. He will die. Drawing on the blanket of rage that I tried to keep contained at all times, I used it to smother the hysteria that wanted to pull me under at the thought of loving him and dooming him at the same time.

He caught a hint of my distress and his brow twitched. I held my hands up. “Okay,” I told him. “Let’s go inside.” I took a single step forward. He didn’t budge. That was better than him grabbing me and forcing me inside. Keeping my voice low and emotionless, I said, “I’m trusting you not to make any sudden moves. Don’t make me regret it.”

Blisteringly aware of the many eyes on my back, I took each step carefully and opened the front door. My foot caught on the carpet when I spotted the mess inside. He’d ripped the marble bench top right off. It now sat on top of the couch. Wherever he was, I hoped Charles hadn’t tried to get in the way.

Heat bloomed at my back as Max came in right on my heels. The door closed with an audible creak. Only once we were inside did I see that it was slightly off its hinge. Taking his hand to create some soothing contact before he decided to give in to the hunger of the beast, I led him up the staircase. The bathroom was still a bloody mess, but he didn’t react when I pushed him inside.

“Shoes off, please,” I asked. When I tried to let go of his hand, he held tighter. “Max. You have to help me out here.”

Completely non-verbal. Okay. That would just have to do. Their shower could fit four normal-sized people. It was still difficult to get him inside. I wiped my palm over the rune. “Ice cold,” I said. The spray almost snapped my arm off.

Max gave a shocked roar before letting go. He understood. Even in that state he wouldn’t allow me to stay because the pressure of the spray would drill holes into my skin. My teeth chattered from the temperature drop.

Max smacked his palms out in front of him and forced his head under the freezing water. It soaked the T-shirt in a second, making it cling to his body like a second skin. He was all broad shoulders and wickedly carved muscle.

I didn’t blame any of the women who had come here presenting gifts of food and of themselves. If not for this bloody curse, I would have melted into a puddle in front of him.

Max made a gasping sound without the underlying snarl that represented his psychosis. Thank goodness. I swiped my hand again and pressed the rune for soothing. Steam hissed from all four sides of the shower. The water began to warm, and the scent of vervain, citrus, and lavender filled the air.

Exhaling the hot breath from my lungs, I went in search of the health elixir. On my way back, I heard the scrape of boots being kicked off. My head filled with all kinds of images of Max slowly stripping his T-shirt over his shoulders and – “Sophie!”

Yikes!

I jumped and bolted down the staircase. It was marginally safer down here. I doubted I was fast enough to get out the door before he tore through the place, but I’d been kidding myself about a lot of things, so why stop now.

The living room was semi-tidied when he finally emerged barefoot and wearing a fresh pair of sweats. Tossing the elixir at him, I went to the far end of the couch and sat on the armrest. From here, the broken bench top sat in our way. He could probably remove it with the flick of a finger, but it gave me a false sense of security.

One of the many things I adored about Max and Lex was that they drank everything I gave them without question. Even though sometimes the potions backfired. He chugged the potion in a single gulp, his eyes widening at the same time I watched the green in his complexion leach away.

“What the hell is this?” he asked, voice only slightly rough.

“Health elixir. I made it in Potions. It was going to kick Celeste’s butt in the Halloween Showcase last year but then...”

I tried to look at everything but him. Unfortunately, Max wasn’t having any of it. Grabbing the tabletop, he lifted it off the couch with one hand and set it down on the floor before sitting down. Reaching out with my foot, I attempted to lift the tabletop. The thing wouldn’t move. This was just great.

“We can’t keep doing this,” I blurted out, disconcerted by the way he kept watching me without saying anything.

“There’s an easy solution.”

Oh, how I wished for supernatural strength so I could pick up the tabletop and beat him to death with it. “I’m not going to repeat myself again.”

Leaning forward, he took my ankle in his grip and dragged me from the armrest until I was sitting on the couch properly. He took up too much space. One more foot and I could be in his lap. I kicked him before that happened. “You could have run,” he said.

“Are you kidding me? Where would I have run to? Your pack doesn’t like me. Who was going to protect me? Charles has cleared off somewhere and Noah is loyal to you. So I’ve got nobody. You’d have run me down.”

His expression was deadpan. “If I was that insane, I would have grabbed you straight away.”

“I cannot believe we’re sitting here talking about the levels of your insanity.”

He smirked. “That doesn’t change the fact that you could have run and you didn’t.”

“I...you are so bloody infuriating.”

Yes, okay. I could have run. If I had turned on my heels and bolted out of there, he would have given chase. But he probably wouldn’t have gotten far once the pack tried to stop him. If they