Page 134 of Vengeance of the Gods

The door to the elevator opened, and a stunned soldier stood on the other side. “Oh… Commander,” the woman stuttered. “I’m s-sorry.”

Vega’s smile was mischievous as she pushed herself off Bridger. “Handsy one, he is.” She winked at the soldier and sauntered off the elevator.

Bridger squeezed by the girl. “Carry on.” He didn’t wait to see if the level three soldier actually got on the elevator or not because he was too busy catching up to Vega, who walked down the hall as if she’d been here a million times.

They walked side by side, passing a few bedroom doors as they continued to the end of the hall where it branched off into a T. At both ends were bathrooms with showers and changing rooms.

“Lost?” Bridger asked, his crooked smirk pulling at the side visible to Vega. He didn’t wait to hear her response. “Bathrooms on both ends of the hall.” He pointed to them and then nodded behind him where they’d come from. “My room is at the other end.” A room he would really love to get Vega in right about now.

Instead of waiting for Bridger to lead, Vega stomped her feet down the hall in the opposite direction. “You could have stopped me.”

Bridger watched her for a second, chuckling to himself. The voice in his head told her he didn’t deserve a second chance with Vega, but the part of him that believed he’d suffered enough let himself, if only for the time being, believe this was the light at the end of his tunnel. “You seemed to know where you were going. I didn’t want to interrupt.”

Except, there couldn’t be a light at the end of the tunnel. Not when Vega’s soul belonged to the underworld—belonged to Pluto.

I’ll find a way to save her.

There were a thousand different ways he could say he was sorry, a million ways he could beg Vega to forgive him, but none of those would mean anything if she wasn’t going to make it to the end to see his promises through.

Vega slowed when she got to the end of the hall. Bridger slipped around her and opened the door at the very end, letting her slip inside before he closed it behind them. It automatically locked, the light flicking on at Bridger’s presence.

Nothing had changed. It looked exactly as it had when he’d left. The plush mattress on the boring metal frame in the corner of the room was made with pillows piled high.

He watched Vega scan the place, running her fingers over the dresser as she looked at the blandness of the room. Compared to the decadent office he spent most of his time in, Bridger’s bedroom held almost no personality.

He let Vega wander. When she got to the desk, she thumbed through the pages of whatever report he’d left out, then opened a drawer.

She’d find nothing more than a couple pens, a pad of paper, and a corkscrew to open the bottles of wine he left stored on the shelf above his desk.

Vega turned around, leaning against the desk. She crossed one foot over the other. “I have to tell you something before we do… whatever it is that’s about to happen between us.”

Bridger raised a brow. “Okay.” There was no telling where this was about to go.

“I kissed Khort in my last life. The night before you took me from the witch’s cottage in Fraus.” Vega said it so nonchalantly he instantly understood there was nothing to worry about. The heat of anger still sizzled, threatening to spark at any second.

“Lucky him. I hope it was everything he dreamed it would be,” Bridger managed to respond with theatrical enthusiasm.

“And then I tried to fuck him.”

Well, that did it.

The wrath inside Bridger’s body turned to molten lava and melted his rationale.

Vega cocked her head, watching Bridger like a hawk ready for its next meal. “It was before I’d gotten my memories back, but I still wanted it, wanted him.”

Khort had been the better choice for Vega, and everyone knew it—except Bridger. There had never been a second where he considered leaving because he felt like he was the wrong choice for the only girl he’d ever loved.

His motives behind leaving had never had anything to do with Khort fucking Fera.

Bridger was the bad boy. The commander’s son who had been known to fly through the ladies lined up at his door. Everyone assumed whoever he’d end up with wouldn’t be for love, but for power. It was what his parents had intended the night they’d introduced their son to the Caelum sisters. Except he’d fallen for the wrong sister. Immediately.

Khort was the kind, strong, chivalrous shifter who could promise Vega a life of fun party planning and cute kids with a house in the woods.

“And I still chose you. Despite what everyone expected of me.” Fuck, had he said those things down the bond?

The anger clouding his judgement could be blamed for that.

Vega stepped forward, and Bridger didn’t dare move. “I wanted him because he looked at me like I was the center of the entire universe, like I could fix everything that was broken. Like maybe I wasn’t broken…”