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“I threw up.” Sam turns back toward the lake and pushes his fingers through his hair. “I couldn’t do it, Nova. The taste in my mouth… it was like acid. I puked, and watching you with the others? Normally, that stuff would be hot as hell but…” He trails off, a shadow crossing his face. “I couldn’t even watch. I had to get away from there.”

I reach for his hand and slot my fingers between his; a hand I thought for so many years I’d never hold again.

“It’s not me, is it?” Sam’s voice is small but deep.

It brings a knot of emotion to my throat and forces me to screw my eyes closed. When I feel him watching me, I open them and wipe a tear from my cheek.

“I’m not one of the five.” Sam meets my gaze, staring deep into my soul, not just my eyes.

I can barely breathe. From the second I got back, I knew—and I knew I had to tell him—but now the moment is here, I feel like I’ll break if I have to say the words. I reach for his face and hold it tightly between my hands. “Sam, it doesn’t matter. I still love you.”

Sam looks down and releases a sorrowful sigh that turns into an ironic laugh. “Of course, it matters.”

I duck to meet his eyes. “It doesn’t.” I press his hand to my chest then kiss him, trying desperately to make all the love I feel flow from my lips to his. “I love you. I’m yours. I always will be. It doesn’t matter what the prophecy says.”

“Who is it?” Sam takes my fingers between his and squeezes. “Mack and Snow? They’re two, not one, so there’s no room for me?”

I breathe in deeply and bite my lower lip. “No, not them. They’re still one, even if they look like two.”

“Then who…?” Sam frowns for a moment, then his eyes widen. As realization settles in his face, the heavy weight of the knowledge he now carries claws at my stomach. “Don’t say it.” He stands up and paces away from me. “You don’t need to say it. There’s only one other person it could possibly be.”

I put my hand on his back and try to make him turn to face me. When he doesn’t, I flit so I’m standing in front of him, sparks fluttering from my skin. “I choose you.” I reach for his neck and grab the ring he has been wearing all this time. Close to his heart. I loop the string over his head, then take the ring and slot it onto my finger. “I still choose you. Fate can tell me how to save the world, but she cannot tell me who to love.”

“It’s not the same, though, is it?” He smooths his finger over mine, caressing the ring he gave me when he swore he’d love me forever.

“Yes, it is. I still need you, Sam. You have to believe me.” I’m crying now, but don’t bother to wipe the tears away. As my emotions swirl and flicker, a cold wind blows across the top of the falls. Sam studies me for a long moment, then folds me into his arms.

He kisses the top of my head. “I believe you, Nova. I’m just sorry I’m not enough.”

* * *

Sam refuses to leave the cliffs. He tells me he needs some time and asks me to break the news to the others so he doesn’t have to hear it again. On the beach, they have cleaned themselves up and are waiting for me. Snow is lying on the sand, licking his large paws. Mack is next to him, but stands up when he sees me.

“Are you alright?” I can’t stop looking at him next to Snow. In a strange way, their mannerisms are the same; the way their heads move, and their eyes follow me.

“I’m fine, Little Star. What about Sam?” Mack hands me a mug of coffee. On the ground next to the fire sits the remains of our camping equipment from the caves.

I take it and move to stand with my bare feet in the shallows of the lake. The cold lapping against my toes is comforting.

“He couldn’t drink my blood. It made him sick.” Before the others can speak, I hold up my palm to show I’m not done talking. “Sam figured it out before I could tell him, and he asked me to tell you all.”

“Figured what out? Tell us what?” Tanner and Mack exchange a worried glance.

“Sam…” My voice falters, but I shake my head when Luther attempts to comfort me. Turning to Kole, I say, “Do you remember what the voice told us? When it said we should find the werewolf and I was convinced it meant Sam?”

Kole nods, his fingers twitching at his sides. “I remember.”

“Well, it seems we got the wrong werewolf.” I try to smile, but it doesn’t work. The smile falters and I force out a heavy breath, trying not to cry again. “Sam isn’t one of my fated mates. My blood couldn’t help him—couldn’t make him stronger or more equipped to fight.” I shake my hands at my sides to try and release the burning tension in my muscles. “Sam isn’t the werewolf I was supposed to find.”

“Then who the hell is?” Luther asks darkly.

I close my eyes and force out the name I’ve been holding back since I returned. “Nico.”

38

KOLE

Nova wants us to wait for Sam but Mack volunteers to stay. “Rev and Sarah will be waiting for news,” he says. “I’ll be okay with Snow. We’ll make sure Sam gets back safely.”