Page 21 of Let Me Win You

They took her from me.

I never trusted my mother or sisters much, but I didn’t expect such a betrayal even from them. They took my Nicole, locked her away, and put wards all around the teahouse, so I couldn’t see or speak with her again.

“Ugrrh!” I roared, fisting my hands in my hair.

The sting at the roots did little to distract me from the inferno of rage and pain that burned through my insides as I restlessly moved in circles under the willow tree by my house.

I couldn’t stay here. But I had nowhere to go for help. Ever since we had grown, Mother held little power over us. But she gained the upper hand in one thing that mattered the most to me—she took my Nicole away from me. And now I had no chance to clear things between us.

All I wanted was to spend a peaceful day with Nic, for us to get to know each other a little better. As she snored softly, snuggled warmly against my chest, I realized I had no strength and no desire to part from her ever again.

Then that pathetic human man knocked on the door of her hotel room, and I panicked that he might be a man who meant something to Nicole. That I might be too late. That she couldn’t be mine.

So, I brought her here, where I thought she’d be safe.

“Fuck!” I pressed my feverish forehead to the willow’s cool trunk, leaving indentation of my horns in its soft bark.

“You have always been so restless, even as a child,” suddenly came from behind me.

“Mother.” I pivoted around to face the woman who gave me birth and had mostly been the bane of my existence ever since. “Did you come here to gloat?”

I gripped the willow trunk, digging my nails into the bark, lest I punch my own mother for what she’d done.

“How little you think of me.” Lifting her multi-colored skirts, she gingerly stepped over my tail that stretched between us. “So, this is how you live?” She turned around, taking in the outside of my dwelling.

I built my house without walls because I enjoyed seeing the greenery of the wetlands and hearing the birds’ songs in the morning. Dragonflies and butterflies fluttered under my roof freely. The patches of the fragrant lilies stretched all the way to my threshold, filling my place with their sweet scent.

I’d hoped Nicole would love it here, but she’d run away in horror…

The memory of that morning brought nothing but rage and heartache.

“What do you want?” I snapped at Mother, grinding my teeth.

She ignored my harsh tone, sliding her gaze over the chairs and table that I had set up in anticipation of having breakfast with Nicole. The basket from the teahouse still lay by the creekwhere I had dropped it, but the ducks had long eaten the pastries that were in it.

“The chairs are a cute touch.” Mother pulled one away from the table and took a seat, uninvited. “Considering that you don’t sit in chairs.” She waved a hand at my tail.

I coiled the lower part of my body, positioning myself at the table across from her. She was right. Normally, I didn’t need a chair. But I’d planned to shift into a more familiar shape for Nicole—into a man of a human size, with legs. I never intended for her to see me in my natural form as a horned, slithering monster.

My mistake was taking the creek from the teahouse where I got the pastries for our breakfast. I had no time to bake any myself, especially after a brief but intense conversation with Avar about the stolen ring. He’d found me shortly after my return to Purgatory, and our conversation ended with a few solid punches exchanged between us after he’d run out of all the strong words he had for me.

With my tail, I could move much faster through the water than walking on legs, and I didn’t want to leave Nicole alone for too long. I had planned to take the more human form before coming up to the bedroom to see her. Unfortunately, she woke up before I reached the house, and she saw me at my worst.

And now… I had no idea how to fix this mess.

“All right, Mother.” I placed my hands on the table. “In the many centuries that I’ve been living here, this is the first time you’ve ever visited. And you couldn’t have chosen a worse time. I have no patience and no desire to entertain someone who keeps my woman away from me, even if they’re related to me.”

Anger boiled in me. I fisted my hands on the table, struggling to contain it.

“No need to be so curt, my son.” She tossed her long, wavy hair over her shoulder and covered my right fist with her hand, matching my shade of green.

The urge to tell her to leave burned through me.

“How is Nic?” I asked instead, starving for any crumbs of news about her.

Was she angry with me? She must be. Was she disgusted by my monstrous appearance? By the way she screamed and ran, she most likely was.

“Has she…” I swallowed around the hard lump of worry lodged in my throat. “Is she alright? Has she calmed down?”

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