The arrow struck. Isabeau winced, but she lifted her chin. “You obviously were very successful fucking me, but then I was an easy target, wasn’t I?” Bitterness fed her fury.

“Hell yeah, you were,” he retorted, his gut twisting into knots beyond anything he’d ever known. His own mate wanted to pimp him out. If that wasn’t the best revenge a woman could think of for a male of his species, driven to be with their woman for nine life cycles, he didn’t know what else would be. He wanted to shake her until her teeth rattled.

She gasped, took a step toward him, her fingers curling into fists, but she stopped herself from attacking him, holding her hurt and pain in check, although she couldn’t stop it from showing on her face. “I figured I wasn’t the first. And I wasn’t, was I?”

Mates didn’t lie to one another and he’d done that enough. “Hell no, you weren’t the first,” he snapped. “But you’re damn well going to be the last. Get yourself another man to do your dirty work for you.”

He spun around, desperate to breathe air that was free of her scent. His cat had gone crazy, roaring with rage, raking at his insides until he was on fire.

“I don’t need another man to do it,” she taunted. “You were plan B. I told Adan I could get in by seducing one of the guards and I know I can. Did you really think I wanted to see you again for any reason? Adan refused, but I learned from the master. I guess I should thank you for that.”

Fury rushed like fire through his veins. The animal rose to the surface in a heated rush of fur and teeth and claws, nearly exploding through his pores. He moved, a blur of speed, his hand palming the knife lying along his thigh, even as his body aggressively slammed into hers, driving her back against the wall, one hand pinning both her wrists above her head. He held her absolutely still, vulnerable, a leopard’s strength running like steel through his body, his heart thundering in his ears as his gaze locked on to hers.

Her eyes were cat’s eyes, although different in that the pupils were vertically oblong rather than linear like his, or round as some of the other cats showed. Right now, her eyes showed exactly what she was thinking, a fierce hatred, a hint of heat she couldn’t stop that only made her loathe him more. Wholly amber, her eyes had gone just as focused as his, refusing to bend to him.

“I didn’t make you a whore. You’re doing that yourself.”

“Fuck you, Vega. And get your hands off of me.”