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I’d hurt my mate brutally, because stupid, coldhearted me had believed in the barbarian way to tame a woman, to make her submit to me unconditionally.
I had encouraged a brute to pound her to within an inch of her life, nearly giving him the license to kill her.
Yet she’d stood up with all the broken bones in her and declared,“You’ll never bend me. You’ll never break me. And you’ll never get the best of me. All you’ll ever get is the nightmare version of me, dickhead.”
At that moment, I’d fallen for her irreversibly, admiring her backbone beyond measure.
Yet I knew, at that same moment, I’d lost her.
She would never want me.
It was too late for me to take back what I’d done to her.
To change a man was difficult. To change a demigod was impossible.
But I’d changed.
I couldn’t be cold and merciless to her anymore, even though I’d never had a sweet bone in my body.
I wanted a chance at redemption, yet I didn’t know how to get it from her. But I was learning and adapting, and I’d keep trying, even if it took me several lifetimes to get there.
I couldn’t give up on her.
I’d been trying to get her to engage with me in any conversation or any activity, as I was afraid I’d diminish to nothing once she no longer registered my existence.
Whenever I opened my mouth, I enraged her. But even the repulsion and black hatred for me in her beautiful green eyes could ignite icy fire in my bloodstream.
After I’d driven away Lucifer’s heir, Marigold didn’t relax. Her fear only thickened, coating every inch of her soft, golden skin, making my heart ache for her.
Then it dawned on me that she regarded me as a worse enemy than the demon.
She thought I’d do more harm to her than him, now that I’d learned about her hidden origin.
She’d almost taken a step toward Lucifer’s son and followed him to Hell to escape me, to escape the worse fate she’d assumed would be awaiting for her at the Academy.
I’d never allow that to happen.
Then a cold, desperate killing light had flashed in her eyes. She’d wanted to eliminate me to preserve herself before my cousins arrived on the scene.
And I’d waited quietly for her to execute her plan to strike me down.
I wouldn’t lift a finger to stop her.
In that moment, I’d had no will to continue my existence if my own mate wanted my death that badly.
Let her burn me.
I deserved it and more.
The idea of slaying me burned brightly in her eyes for only two heartbeats before the murderous light dimmed.
My heart broke at her mistrust, fear, and white-hot hatred of me. My heart ached even more to see her so lost, standing there alone amid the shadows and light and corpses littered around the battlefield.
She shivered in the night wind that reeked of blood and the remnants of Hell’s sulfur. My primal instinct urged me to pull her into my arms to shield her.
But I knew she would rather drive a knife into her body than let me comfort her.
My mate regarded me as her immortal enemy, and in such an hour when she needed a shield and comfort, I couldn’t even hold her to tell her that she was safe with me. The message in her devastated eyes was loud and clear—she believed that as long as the demon prince and I existed, she’d never be safe.
