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Glistening tears fill her eyes, and she blinks them away almost angrily, turning her face away from me, as if she didn't want me to see.
"I couldn't let this curse hurt the one person who'd changed everything for me. I couldn't let it destroy the man who showed me I was brave and not just broken. I just couldn't. I can't—I can't let it kill the man I love."
She closes her eyes, a tear trickling down her cheek as she refuses to look at me. Everything inside me feels hot and sharp, and there's a hollowness in my chest that only she can fill.
I've been worried about her, confused by her, captivated, frustrated, enchanted, charmed, betrayed and saved by her. This nameless girl with violet eyes has consumed me. Her soft voice, curious hands, tender smile, and even her scent of her, like jasmine and vanilla, are intoxicating.
I know that what she has just revealed should horrify me.
But I used to fear she thought of me as a monster or a brute. Knowing that she has wanted me all this time, even a fraction of how much I've wanted her...
It does something to me that borders on dangerous.
I'm drunk on desire for her, and all I want to do is drag my fingers through her hair and turn that pretty face toward me.
"I wanted to save you from all of this, to save you from me," she says softly. "I tried to let you go. I told myself you only wanted me because of Sophie's prophecy. The curse, the wrath of the goddess, the mating bond-"
"Forget the mating bond," I growl, the words slipping out of me before I can rein them in. She finally whirls to look at me, her plump lips parted slightly in surprise. "Forget the mating bond and fuck the curse."
I stand, leaning forward and grab the chair by her backrest and turn it to face me, my hands on either side above her head as I loom over her. She looks up at me without a trace of fear or dismay. The way she looks at me with a mixture of curiosity, amazement, and utter surrender makes everything inside me go taut, her eyes fluttering down to my lips as I speak.
"I want you because I love you."
Chapter Twenty-One
Heat rises within me as Tristan leans forward, tucking a strand of loose hair behind my ear before trailing his finger down my jaw and then tilting my chin to face him.
I close my eyes, holding back the torrent of emotions that threatens to drown me.
"Little flower... look at me," he says, his voice gentle and commanding at the same time.
So I do. I meet his gaze, and my breath hitches at the desire burning in those amber eyes that look like molten gold in the flickering candlelight of the war room.
I reach a tentative hand around his neck, his own still gripping the chair behind me as if physically holding himself back. When I move, his own resolve wavers and his arms wrap around my waist, pulling me onto my feet so I stand pressed against him. We're trapped between the table and the car, but neither one of us moves away.
His hands glide down the small of my back before tugging me closer, and I pull myself toward him with my fingers entwined behind the nape of his neck as we crush the air between our bodies, cursing the things that keep us apart.
He's warmth and strength and courage and comfort, and I hate how perfectly I fit against him. He leans down, our temples touching as our faces rest against each other, turned away, and I know he won't risk kissing me now that he knows it will hurt me. In that moment, I love and hate him for that. More than anything, I just want him.
"What can I do?" he asks in a low rumble.
But there is nothing to be done. He can't fix this; neither one of us can, no matter how much we may want to.
"You can't," I whisper, and we hold each other in the silence that follows.
But then there's a noise outside the war room, and the doors swing open. My father storms in, his pale face contorted in distress. I've never seen him like this before.
I'm about to ask him what's going on, but then Marco's eyes land on my mate.
"Gather your council, wolf king. Your army has sent word. We're about to have company," he says sternly.
I slide out from behind the chair, feeling cold and empty from the absence of Tristan's body against my own.
"What are you talking about?"
"He's coming, isn't he?" Tristan asks my father, and I blink in surprise, looking back and forth between them as they exchange a long, hard look.
What am I missing?
