Chapter 1
Nyx
“Ilove you, Lumi,” Ambrose says.
The words feel like a thousand daggers driving into my heart all at once. Lumi isn’t his to love.She’s mine.
My mate.
Mine.
Mine.
Mine.
MINE.
But it’s more than just the possessiveness I feel about Lumi that hits me like a ton of bricks.
The curse…
Ambrose just sealed Lumi’s fate. She’ll die at my hand.
Magic washes through my body in a wave, sinking into every muscle, vein, and nerve. Its talons are so deep that I know my sole mission will be hunting her down until I’ve sunk my fangs into her neck and killed her.
No, this can’t be happening. This can’t be real. It has to be a nightmare. I’m dreaming. Wake up. Wake up, you foolish bastard!
I don’t wake up.
Lumi is staring at me with her luminous blue eyes, probably for the last time. She knows what those words mean better than anyone. The fear I see when she looks at me breaks something in me, something deeper than my fucking heart. A piece of me calls to her, so desperate to say fuck everything and mark her right here, right now as my mate, curses be dammed.
“Run!”I send through our bond.
The single word falls off a cliff in my brain. It falls, cascading down, down, down into an endless valley. My connection with her is gone. Severed so completely that I can’t even find a remnant of her in my mind. And yet, I know she was there—the void remaining is vast and unending.
I was prepared to give her up. I knew she wasn’t my mate. I knew that she and Ambrose were the ones predestined by the gods. I knew that to save her life, I had to let her mark with Ambrose. Even if we were mates, my own vampire curse would eventually take me out.
I knew what that would mean for me: the bond I shared with her would sever. I knew my connection to her would end. What I didn’t realize was how painful, how empty, it would feel. A part of my soul has been ripped from my body.
Ambrose catches her eye, concentrating as if speaking through their bond. She scowls, unhappy with whatever he said at first. Then, a moment later, she nods and starts running faster than I’ve ever seen her human legs run before.
“I’m going to kill you,” I growl at Ambrose.
“I’m sorry,” Ambrose says.
“I’m going to fucking kill you! Maybe the curse will end with your death,” I snarl, leaping across the field until I’m standing right next to him, ready to rip his head off.
Ambrose doesn’t move, frozen. Suddenly, I remember why I can’t kill him—at least, not yet. I have to deal with the reason he’s frozen in place first.
Fucking hell.
I turn my attention toward Isolde, who is slowly shifting her gaze toward where Lumi has just reached the edge of the forest.
“Go!”I send to Sylara, needing her to protect Lumi with her life. Only the simplest, most emotional messages can be communicated between beta and alpha. Sylara was moving before I even gave her a command. In one leap, she’s at Lumi’s side.
“Make Lumi shift,”I send to Ambrose, before realizing I probably can’t talk to him through the bond either.
“She’s never going to forgive me,”he sends back.