"I could kill your servant for telling you that name," he said in a conversational tone of voice. The crown prince pivoted on one foot and looked at me with an uncaring expression in his golden eyes. One ear flicked towards me, then back again. "How is my soulmate supposed to get to know me if she's poisoned by the gossip of Stag Court?"

I felt cold all over, sweat springing up on my nose and prickling under my arms.

Dain snorted out a breath, watching me. "Now you feel fear, pretty Leah?"

Ugh. Of course he knew my name, too, but I didn't like hearing him say it. I licked my lips; I didn't want to get Susan killed or otherwise under the ire of the Beast of Phazikai.

"Who wouldn't be afraid of being your soulmate?" I said, going for cutting. If he was angry at me, perhaps he would forget to be angry at Susan. "You come in here, knowing I'm reeling, and display yourself like you expect me to faint away in terror? Sneering and snarling is such a comfort, your highness. I'm not poisoned by anything other than you."

His cheek twitched, the corner of his mouth drawing back. "Did you expect roses and satin sheets?" Dain asked. "A beautiful prince to sweep you off your feet?"

I lowered my arms and looked at him, tilting my head. That was bitterness in his voice, something that sounded like self-hatred. Everything else about him fit the picture I expected: arrogant, vicious, cruel. But... bitterness?

Maybe he really did want me to like him. Bummer for him.

"A week ago, I watched the man I loved get crushed to death by a falling cliff," I said, biting off the words. I watched Dain's nostrils flare and his ears lay back along his skull. One of his hands clenched into a fist. "Six days later, you found me dying and desperate and were perfectly happy to leave me there, even when your companions would have carried me here. No, I didn't expect roses and satin sheets, and I don't fucking want a beautiful prince to sweep me off my feet. I want to go home, and I want to grieve with my family and his. If you were the sweetest, most beautiful man in the world, I wouldn't want to be here with you."

His chin lifted and his eyes narrowed, something like a mask of contempt settling onto his striking features. He looked at me like I was an insect, only worth the contemplation of if I should be crushed or tossed back outdoors. "What you want doesn't matter."

"I'm aware," I snapped. "But you asked."