Page 62 of Malcolm

“Is everything okay?”

She blinked; she’d gotten so comfortable in the silence between them that she’d expressed herself without thinking. “Nothing, just tired,” she said as they walked along. “Where are you taking me?”

“The oldest part of the land here,” he said.

She followed him out of the main entrance, and together, they walked past the other houses. She waved to a few women who greeted her, and as the two of them walked out of the main gates of the compound, she enjoyed the comfortable silence between them.

She wanted to ask him where he was taking them as they walked towards the woods. Still, before she got a chance, they arrived at the opening of a clearing, and in the center of the clear, surrounded by brightly colored flowers, was a large pillar of what looked to be…

“Magic stone,” she whispered in amazement. She’d seen magic stones a lot in the city; magic stones were to the Beings like diamonds were to humans. One this big was worth a pretty penny; the soft-shell pink of its outer shell wasn’t anything compared to the rainbow of auras that swirled within.

Seeing eight feet of it was mind-boggling, and as she drew close, she realized that names were etched into it. The Magic in the air buzzed and brushed against her skin, and she immediately lost control of her disguise charm.

“What is this?” she asked, looking at Malcolm, who’d remained quiet.

He kept his eyes on the stone, “Every Alpha who’s ever found his fated mate has carved his and her name here. Since the first Alpha brought his pack here, only a fated pairs name can remain carved here.”

Eliza straightened. “Malcolm?—”

He shook his head, turning to face her, his eyes sharp. “No, I couldn’t promise you what you wished, even if I wanted to.” He sighed. “You’re my fated mate.”

“No.” She gasped; it wasn’t possible. She wasn’t worthy of being anyone’s mate if he knew—she couldn’t tell him. “No, you must be wrong.”

“But it is and cannot be changed.” His voice gruff. “Not that I would have it any other way. I wanted to wait before I told you, but I know this won’t be possible. The more I hold back, the more dangerous I become.”

“Dangerous?’

He nodded. “After my fight with Damon, my ability to change was stunted. When I was banished, I was so lost and alone. Everything that had made me proud had been torn away, not by a stranger but by my own father’s hands. I had done something good, and not only had he labeled me a criminal, but he’d also reported me to the outsiders he’d hated so much. I was filled with murderous rage.”

She wanted to say something, but her mind was blank.

“Those years were interesting; I killed and performed my duty along with others who were similar to me. We were all outcasts from the worlds we’d believed in and had been scraped from the floor of hell to serve a megalomaniacs ego. Tiller never once pretended to be anything more or less than a demon with an axe to grind, and we were his weapons with which to do it.” He shook his head, “Unfortunately, I couldn’t escape one part of my nature: the heat. So, I had no choice but to seek out strangers. A violation of the vows males’ wolves make at twenty, to keep their bodies pure for their mates alone.”

Eliza wanted to look but she couldn’t. He’d trapped her with his ardent gaze.

“I lived like this for many years, with little to no problems.”

“Then what changed?”

He tilted his head sideways, those green eyes leaching of their lovely color to a golden amber. His expression turned feral.

“One of us found love,” he said, his voice stringent with suppressed emotion. “I was the one who’d waited and prayed for my gods not to abandon me and to bring me salvation, and here, the one who’d abandoned all humanity had found one for himself. I—” he bit his lip, but she could understand his complex emotions without words. “I learned that I hadn’t forgotten anything and still craved everything I had grown up with. My people, my Land, and my mate. It was my right to have these things, but I once more suppressed it.”

“And yet, another one of us demons found love. I would have laughed if it wasn’t so sad. I became restless, and just when I was deciding on whether I’d remain a demon or return to the world of hypocritical rules, you appeared.”

She looked away from him, expression now troubled.

“Wild, mysterious, and broken,” he said the last word in a whisper. “I don’t know what my existence means to you, but for me, you are the beginning of my existence. Time, life, and death weren’t real until I laid my eyes on you. I knew then that I had found what was rightfully mine.”

She shivered at his words. Her fingers twitched; she wanted to cover her eyes against his confession. She wanted to run away and never look back. The idea of being his mate was as laughable as her hope to live after taking her revenge. She would die because she was nothing more than the vessel that had gotten lucky.

Her body didn’t show a bit of its actual damage due to the goddess inside her. She remembered the broken ribs, the shattered pelvis, and the arm that had been cut off.

They’d repeatedly thrown her in the ring with another vessel to test her. She felt every wound and watched as they healed.

The minute the goddess left her body, she’d fall apart like a patchwork doll. The only thing that was truly hers was her heart and mind. Everything else was pieces and parts; she’d been sewed together like a Frankenstein, pieces by pieces. A Raggedy Anne doll left nothing but pieces of her soul.

He wanted a woman who’d already died.

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