James POV

'I'm a man,' I say. 'I know what he's after.'

I keep my voice level when I say it, because the point I'm making isn't about anger—it's about the distinction, and I need her to hear the distinction clearly. Noah wants her the way the mate bond commands it: the pull, the hunger, the instinctive territorial certainty that she belongs to him because some force outside both of them decided so. I've watched how he moves around her, and I understand what ...