"I know you think I think you're too weak to take me," he went on at last, again with that uncanny ability to read me.
I couldn't be transmitting that much through the bond, could I?
Emotions could bleed through when bonds were strong, and there were legends of shifters hearing their mates' actual thoughts, sometimes, in moments of high stress.
But I couldn't feel him like that, and bonds were almost always even in terms of the mates' senses. They allowed you to glimpse your mate's mind, or they didn't, and that cut both ways.
"I don't think you're weak," he said. "You survived there. You still wanted to live. You wanted to escape. You're so fucking brave—Jared. I didn't want to kill you. You almost died, and I was holding you in my arms when I ripped that collar off, feeling your life slip away."
