It's been over ten minutes and Cordelia is still not back from the bathroom. This is not like her. She always wants to get right back to bed after she wakes up in the middle of the night. It's fitting that my mate is a Dreamwalker; sleep is something she truly enjoys.

Something is wrong.

I throw the covers off and bound out of bed, my stomach flipping when I notice the bathroom light isn't even on. Jerking the door open, my suspicions are confirmed—she isn't in there.

"What the fuck?" I murmur, pulling on a pair of sweats and a t-shirt before sticking my head into the hallway. It's quiet, no one in sight. Maybe she went back to her room for something? Her inhaler? I thought she had one in my room, but maybe it ran out. I peek my head into her room, but find it empty as well, nothing disturbed.

I call her name, and no one answers except the echo of my own voice off the walls. As I head downstairs, I hear a noise coming from the living room.

Oh shit. What if Cordelia is sleepwalking in her dreams? What if she wasn't even awake when she spoke to me a few minutes ago?

I clamber down the stairs, terrified what might happen if she goes outside with no protection from the elements. I can't see her like that again, I can't—

I freeze when I slide into the living room in my socked feet. The scene I see before me is something I cannot comprehend. There's no way my brother is standing in my living room with his hand held out to my mate. Cordelia, dressed in her winter coat with her backpack on, pauses and looks at me over her shoulder. She's leaving me. With him. This—this can't be happening right now.

Our eyes meet and pure rage seeps from every pore in my body.

"Cordelia, come here," my brother and I say at the same time.

We engage in a stare-off for a few seconds that feel like hours. And then she sprints toward Elias. I race after her, but he grabs her before I get a chance. His best friend darts from the front door, trying to make the same move as Cordelia, but I block her efforts. My arm whips around her waist as my other grabs her by the neck. I twist Lorelai's head to the side, exposing her throat. My fangs extend, ready to sink into her artery.

"Let's make a trade," I hiss moving closer to Lorelai's neck to stop her from struggling against my hold. "You can leave with your best friend with her head intact or I kill her and then you."

"Go!" Lorelai yells.

I jerk her head drawing a yelp from her. "What will it be, brother?"

But it isn't him who answers me. It's Cordelia, her voice broken with sobs.

"Please, Cane. Please don't do this. Don't hurt her. You're angry at me, at Elias, fine. But not Lorelai. She didn't do anything to you. Please, I am begging you. Don't hurt her."

"This is an easy fix, Delia. Come here and I'll let her go."

Elias's fingers dig into the side of her jacket, holding her to him.

Cordelia looks up at him with tears streaming down her face. "I'm sorry, but I can't let her die for me."

He glances down at her, his attention split between the two women at my mercy. He is weak, so fucking weak. Why he ever thought he was fit to lead our people is beyond me. I've given him an option that should take little thought, but of course he can't choose. I would have left with Cordelia with no questions asked. It is just one of the many reasons why I deserve her over him.

"Elias?" she cradles his cheeks and brings his mouth to hers for a soft kiss. "I'm sorry. Just know it was always you."

My brother stands stunned as she slips out of his arms.

"Good girl, coelhinha," I praise her as she moves toward me. Once she is in arm's reach, I shove Lorelai away and hurry to grab Cordelia, but I come up short. My brother slams into me and we both crash to the ground.

I see out of my periphery Cordelia snatch Lorelai and they hold each other close, but I can't focus on them when my brother is about to pummel me into next week. That cannot happen. He cannot win. I won't allow it. I grasp his neck and push him off me before gaining the upper hand, slamming my fist into his nose.

"Cane! Stop!" Cordelia screams, but I don't listen. I can't stop. Not when he tried to take her from me.

Elias growls and lifts his leg, kneeing me in the gut hard, causing me to shift away from him. He takes that opportunity to grab me by the collar and give me an uppercut to the jaw, and I have to admit I feel a thrill when Cordelia shouts at him, begging him to stop.

But we don't. We fight, years and years of pent-up hostility and bitterness pouring out of us like a raging river. This confrontation has been decades in the making, and what better thing to fight over than our mate?

"Give up, Elias. She chose me."

He laughs, a dark, condescending chuckle that makes me want to choke him out. "She did that to distract you so she could save Lorelai, you twit."

"No, she—"

Before I can finish my thought, we're flung to separate corners of the room, Cordelia standing between us with her arms stretched out to her sides and her eyes closed tight.

"What the fuck?" the siren mutters, voicing my thoughts exactly.

"I said stop. You didn't listen," Cordelia says, her voice loud and confident as she stands with her spine straight, holding two grown, well-trained, strong vampires back from a fight they'd been literally dying to have.

She drops a hand, the one holding Elias, and slowly opens her eyes. "I can't kill him, Cane. I can't kill either of you. I also can't be your pawn in the war the two of you have. I want to go home to my family and leave the manipulation and violence behind. I'm choosing myself and what is best for me."

"No, Cordelia." I struggle against her invisible hold on me. I won't let her leave. She is mine, my soul bonded, my mate. She belongs with me.

Elias walks across the room to her and Lorelai, wiping away the blood at the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand.

"Don't you dare touch her! I will kill you, Elias. You will die and she will be mine."

Cordelia laughs and the sound cuts through my soul. "Cane, no matter what happens from this moment forward, I will never be yours. I never was. You used me. You lied to me. I was never more than a fucking tool for you to get closer to your goal."

"Everything I did was for us."

"It was all for you. I never said I wanted to be a queen. I just wanted your friendship and trust. You wanted the world for yourself and were willing to share pieces with me because you feel the bond between us. I get it; I really do. That's what made it so easy for me to lose myself in you, but I was wrong to do that. I used you too, and I apologize for that. Deep down I knew you would never fill the part of my heart that belongs to Elias. I'm sorry."

"Stay. Please stay." My words jar something deep inside me. I've never been so desperate for someone not to go. Begging isn't in my nature, but it is what I'll do to keep her. "Please, coelhinha."

She looks at me with those stormy gray eyes, and I know then that I've lost her.

"I can't, Cane. I can't be the little rabbit you chase anymore. You have to let me go."

My jaw clenches and I lock my watery eyes on her. The next words out of my mouth are the truest I've ever said. "Never. I will chase you down to the ends of this realm and the next. You were made to be mine and I don't let others play with my things without consequences." I glare at my brother. "Enjoy her while you have her. When I come to take her back, I will make sure to kill you first."

Elias's lips twitch, in fear or anger I don't know, but I've plunged the knife in and twisted the blade. I want blood. His. Hers. This entire godsdamn realm. I will take it drop by drop if I must, but at the end of the day, everything will bleed for me.