Chapter 40: Chapter 40 Battle of the Mind

　　~ CASIMIR (Earlier, in the room off the Den) ~

　　The moment my teeth sank into her flesh and I tasted her blood, the world shifted.

　　I almost shifted.

　　The part of me that was animal leaped for control, teeth snapping, body steel, all senses heightened and focused on only one goal.

　　Her.

　　For a time it seemed my body and mind were torn apart and I clung desperately to keep both as my body plunged into her, gripped her, took her… But my mind screamed-desperate need, fear, rage…

　　I spent minutes fighting not to lose myself entirely. I fought for her-snarling at her to declare the sick truth of us-her power over me, mine over her, the ways that we were tied together, whether we wanted it that way or not.

　　And then she said it, she gasped the truth that I was master to her slave, and power slammed through my body until I was clinging to her, not to keep her there, but clawing into her to ground myself, because I feared I was lost.