AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Not until her,” Love murmured.
“It’s going to be different now. We have a chance at something better. Something real.” My throat was thick all of a sudden, and I inhaled aggressively. “I… I definitely wouldn’t be someone with that kind of chance if you’d left me. Neither would he. So… thank you. And I’ll say it for him too, since I doubt he’ll ever say it—even if he knows it.”
Love breathed a laugh, but didn’t meet my eyes.
After a long pause with no more words, I glanced at the barbecue.
We had been here a while.
“Do you have to check it or something?” I asked.
“Actually… I uh… haven’t figured out how to connect the gas,” he muttered.
I snorted.
We sat in silence for another peaceful stretch, and the bundle of nerves on his end of the bond unravelled slowly with every second that passed.
“It’s going to be better,” I said at last. “You’re not on your own anymore. Now that I’ve seen this future, I’m not letting go. Not if it kills me.”
THIRTY-SIX
VEX
I needed this.
I just prayed that Love wouldn’t think I was insane. Then again, if he did, he could add it to the list.
But I’d felt a connection to him since I’d arrived that I’d never felt before. It was new.
Every time I saw him, I just… I wanted him close. I felt it with all my mates, but it was different for all of them. For Love, it was a desire to be closer, to convince him to tell me everything would be alright, even when neither of us could make a promise like that. But he had a way of making me feel like maybe… just maybe, he could make that promise. That the world would change for him.
So I picked out the best lingerie I could find and hurried to his room, getting myself ready.
I waited for him in nothing but black lace and a silken dressing gown. When he walked into the room, I heard his footsteps halt. Vanilla winter shifted to something wanting, but I caught the edge of nerves to it.
He crossed toward where I knelt and sat on the bed beside me. “Vex.” His voice was rough, as if there was something stuck in this throat.
“I want—need—to…” I trailed off, trying to find the words.
“I can’t do this if you’re here because I hurt you the first time…”
I shook my head.
It wasn’t so simple. I’d been reminded yesterday what it was like to have this forced upon me by Zeus. When I’d come to Love like this before it had been a daring choice to give him the same, to give him a chance to change the narrative. But those hours of silence were hard to shake, claiming far too much space for how little had happened in them.
“I’m here because I trust you—Iwantto…” I trailed off, trying to find my strength. “I want to give you what I will never give him.”
That was what I had always wanted.
Again, there was silence between us.
“I’m yours, alpha,” I whispered. “Command me, and there is nothing I won’t do for you.”
Again, his scent shifted, his want deepening along with his sorrow.
I felt the brush of his touch as he nudged my chin up to face him. My nerves vanished, pulse quickening. Goosebumps lifted across my body as I looked up into stunning ocean blue eyes.
It was different now. It could be different forever. He could never erase the pain he’d given me, but he could begin writing over it. Create new connections to this room, to this dynamic, to the very thought of handing him power.
