Troy didn't allow her to struggle for long. After a few seconds, he pulled her against him and held her fast, pinning her arms and holding her kicking feet above the ground.
"Let me go," she demanded. "I'm going to kill him."
But Troy was already walking her back into the house. "The only person you're going to hurt is yourself."
He glanced back over his shoulder at Maddox. "Thanks for coming out, brother. I'll be over with your truck in a day or two."
Disgust filled Faith at the word ‘brother.’ It was clear where Troy's loyalties lay…and it wasn't with the woman he'd been ravaging for days on end.
"Are you finished with your little temper tantrum?" Troy demanded as he set her down on the couch, not ungently.
Faith glowered at him. Yes, her body might be exhausted, but her spirit wasn't…and neither was her mouth.
"Don't talk to me as if I'm a child."
"Then don't act like one." Troy crossed his arms in front of his chest and fixed her with a frustrated gaze. "Do you have any idea how rare it is for Maddox to set foot on someone else's property?"
No, of course, she didn't. How could she? And why should she care?
Faith struggled to stay upright, but her body was slowly sliding down on the couch, utterly spent from the confrontation.
Fine—she could yell at Troy just as easily from down here on the cushions.
"That man is holding my sister prisoner," she said.
"The hell he is," Troy shook his head. "That alpha is mated to Hope. She gave him her claiming bite. They're starting a family. It's done."
"I don't believe you."
Troy laughed darkly, sending shivers up Faith's spine. Shivers that harkened dangerously back to the thrilling sensations of the last few days in his bed.
What was wrong with her? She had to be delirious. There was no other reason she couldn't separate fear from ecstasy anymore.
"You’d better believe it," he said. "Because the same thing is going to happen to us."
Faith summoned the last of her energy to glare at Troy. "Never."
The mocking smile didn't leave Troy's lips. He leaned against the rough stones of the fireplace.
"You're an omega, Faith. My touch awakened your nature. You've spent the last four days deep in your first heat, riding on my cock. We've already bonded in ways that no one can sever. Tell me…what do you think is going to happen?"
Faith bit her bottom lip. Troy wasn't lying, but that didn't mean she wanted to hear what he had to say. And it sure as hell didn't mean she had to accept it.
She took a deep, steadying breath and looked him straight in the eye.
"I'll tell you exactly what I'm going to do," she said. "I'm going to find my sister, I'm going to put her in the back of the van, and then I'm going to drive us back home."
Ice crystals formed in Troy's eyes. "Over my dead body," he said, his voice deadly serious.
"You think I don't mean what I say?" Faith demanded. She was past the point of caring what effect her words had on him. "I've already taken a shot at you once. I'll do it again."
Troy shook his head with cold certainty. "No, you won't."
Now it was her turn to laugh. "Why? Do you think just because you've defiled me that I'm obligated to love you? Now you're the one who's thinking like a child. I swear to you that the second I can stand, I am walking out that door. And if you stand in my way, I will cut off your head like Judith, or drive a stake through your temple like Jael."
Troy's eyes narrowed. "You really think you can kill me?"
"Goliath said the same thing to David."
Troy pushed himself off the hearth and disappeared into the kitchen nook, returning with a butcher's knife in his hand.
The blood went cold in Faith's veins. She struggled to get up and run, but couldn't even manage to sit up.
"Calm down," Troy said. "I'm not going to hurt you."
Still, Faith frantically drew away from him as he sat down on the other end of the couch. But then he turned the knife around and offered her the handle.
"What are you doing?"
"Giving you what you want." He forced the knife into her hands, then pulled his shirt over his head and dropped it on the floor, exposing his hard chest. "This is your chance to kill me. Do it now, because I won't make this offer again."
Faith gaped at him.
"It's what you said you wanted," he repeated impatiently. "So get it over with. Stab me through the heart."
Her pulse raced and her hand began to tremble as she turned the knife over in her hand. "Troy, I…"
"Now I'm back to being Troy again?" he said mockingly. "Not devil? Or how about monster? If it's so easy to kill me, then do it, Faith."
When she didn't budge, he reached out and wrapped his hand around her wrist, forcing it closer so the sharp tip of the knife pressed against his skin. Faith tried to pull away, but he wouldn't let her.
"You have to do it if you want to get past me to the door. My keys are in the truck."
She hung her head. "That's…not what I meant."
"No?" he said, the look in his eyes colder than ever. "You just said that you'd cut my head off, so…."
Hot tears welled in Faith's eyes as he forced the blade up to his throat. "Stop this."
"What's wrong?" he sneered. "Don't try to tell me David cried when he took down Goliath, Faith."
He forced her hand forward just far enough that the tip of the knife punctured his skin, causing a tiny rivulet of bright red blood to appear. Faith felt herself crumple at the sight. She thought that she might
