AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Before I could walk over to get my shoulder bag from the couch where I’d placed it, he grabbed my arm.
“Aurora . . . I know I lied to you, but . . . don’t shut me out, okay?” I looked up into his eyes and the overwhelming fear in them, as if he was afraid that I was going to reject our true mate bond because he lied to me.
“You can yell at me, but don’t shut me out.” He repeated.
“I’m . . . just trying to . . . process this,” I said as I supported my weight on the kitchen counter. “Levi . . . you lied to me repeatedly and now I’m here at this point . . . in love with four guys. How . . . I can’t believe that this pang in my chest could have just been avoided if you’d just given me a little hope instead of pushing me away.”
“But I told you to wait for me.” He argued in a soft voice.
“After rejecting me the way you did? Levi . . . you made me feel like I was trying to force you to do something you didn’t want. I don’t expect you to have told me I was your true mate, but you could have told me to wait a little longer. You could have—”
“I’m sorry . . . I wasn’t thinking straight. I was fighting with not just you but also myself. Do you think I’ve ever felt desire when taking blood from my blood donors? But that night spoiled all my plans. In my plans, we were going to start our relationship after I solved everything. I just . . .”
He took a deep breath and pulled me into a bear hug. “It sounds like I’m making excuses for my faults. I’m so sorry Aurora. I hated lying to you more than you would think. Every moment of rejecting you felt worse than being in the Pits for an entire month straight.”
“What Pits?” I asked, pulling away from his embrace so I could lock gazes with him.
He sighed. “My father was Andre Dupont, the owner of Les Fosses De Sang, that is, um . . . the Blood Pits.”
I covered my gaping mouth with my palm in shock as many things I didn’t understand before began to fall into place. “That’s Remy Dupont’s brother that got away. You . . . the place you went to every month was the Blood Pits? I get that your father is . . . evil, but why would he send you to fight in the Blood Pits?”
His eyes cooled and I could see the hatred raging in them as he said, “Because he hated me.”
Seeing that he didn’t want to talk about it, I tried to think of something else to say while grabbing and squeezing his hand.
But then something else occurred to me. “The reason Daddy Keane was always so hostile toward you was that our first meeting wasn’t an accident, right? We met because your father sent you after me as revenge for Daddy Keane putting his brother in prison.”
“Yes, but that’s not the only reason your father hates me.” He said with unmistakable guilt in his voice as he fixed his gaze on the ground.
“Then . . . why?” I couldn’t help asking.
“Because I tried to kidnap you when you were a child.”
4
Aurora
I couldn’t help wondering if my ears were failing me as I asked, “You tried to do what?”
“It’s a long story—”
“Well then, make it short. I won’t be able to stop thinking about it if you don’t tell me.” I insisted, grabbing his arm the way I used to do when I wanted to get him to do something for me or with me that was against my parent’s wishes.
“Fine. When . . . your parents started to leave me alone, unsupervised, with you, I was worried that they weren’t cautious enough and that you would eventually fall into my father’s hands. You were my true mate and I couldn’t let that happen, so I planned to run away with you. Turns out I was too naive. Your parents had set several layers of protection spells on you and the house in Aruthia, so they caught me in the act and interrogated me with a truth serum.”
My lips parted in surprise. “Why don’t I remember any of this?”
“You slept through the whole thing.” He smiled bashfully. “Your parents weren’t the only ones who interrogated me. Your grandmother, Doyle, Nina, and Brogan were there, too. It was only then that I realized that your parents had known from the onset what my mission was and who I was. They were really terrifying even to a hundred-and-four-year-old vampire.”
“Wow . . .” I perched on the armrest of the couch, overloaded with information.
“Come on, the investigation is over and I can answer some of your non-confidential questions. But we’ll have to talk in the car. It’s almost time for your first class.”
He pulled me to my feet, pulled the straps of my shoulder bag onto his shoulder, and ushered me down to the underground parking lot. Then he drove me to school, answering my questions about things in the past that had a richer context now that I knew the entire truth.
* * *
When we got to Crawford University, Levi didn’t drop me off at the gate like Joel always did. Instead, he drove into the school’s parking lot. And his blazing red Soul Tiger Grimes Automobile Special Edition car stood out like a sore thumb.
