Page 152 of A Promise so Bold and Broken

“Hurting?” Lessia’s brows furrowed. “Who is hurting?”

“Merrick, of course!” Raine stalked up to her, forcing her to bend her neck to continue meeting his furious hazel eyes. “This will be the one and only time I break a promise to him.”

Lessia’s mind spun as she stared up at one of the deadliest Fae in their realm.

And when he leaned in and snarled “Merrick is your fucking mate,” she had to grip the chair not to let her knees give out.

ChapterThirty-Eight

“No.” She glared back at Raine. “That’s not possible.”

“Why would it not be possible?” Raine asked, his voice shaking from so much held-back anger that Kerym rose from his seat and slipped up beside him, slamming one of his arms into Raine’s chest to keep him from attacking her—or whatever he was planning to do.

“Because males sense their mate from the first moment they meet them!” Lessia bit back, flashing her teeth at Raine when he growled at her. “My father told me you catch their scent, and that’s that. It’s impossible to miss. He found my mother when she passed him on aship! You two should know better than anyone!”

She wasn’t prepared for the males’ faces contorting with pain.

Raine’s glass shattered in his hand, and Kerym’s hand fisted so hard where it lay across Raine’s chest that it looked as if it belonged to a wraith.

“I’m so sorry!” she hurried out. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“We’re not hurting for us,” Kerym responded, his hand flexing and eyes so full of agony that the sense traveled right into Lessia’s chest, wrapping around her heart and keeping it captive.

“You truly don’t know,” Raine mumbled, and she backed away from him when tears brimmed in his eyes.

No.

Lessia shook her head.

It couldn’t be true.

Because if it was…

“Rioner was there the first time Merrick was in the same room as you. It was the day he forced you to swear the blood oath to him.” Raine ground his teeth before he continued.

“Merrick tried to hide it, but once that scent reaches your nose… it’s pure instinct… primal. We have no control over it, and he fought for his life to get to you in those cellars… but he was bound by the oath, and Rioner threatened to make him kill you if he didn’t back down.”

Kerym’s blue eyes flooded as she sliced her blurry gaze to his, and his voice trembled far too much to belong to a feared Fae warrior. “At first, Rioner thought it was enough to keep you separated, but then…”

She wanted to cover her ears with her hands as she continued to step backward.

Didn’t want to hear this.

“He thought it was an even better punishment for Merrick to have to be near you. But to never fully lay eyes on you—to have to hurt you, make you scared of him! Did you never wonder why the strongest Fae in the realm was sent to watch overyou? A half-Fae already blood-sworn to him.” Kerym shook his head.

Raine pulled a long drink of wine before adding, “And… imagine Rioner’s joy when you went and fell in love with someone else.”

Her heart shattered.

And not into those cracked pieces that might be put together again.

But into millions of tiny shards, impossible to ever heal.

Raine blew out a deep breath as he tracked her, the torment stark in his gaze. “It would have killed a lesser Fae. But Merrick is strong. Stronger than most. And you hadn’t started sealing the bond then… It’s different now, so I had to tell you.”

Lessia halted her retreat. “Started sealing the bond?”

Kerym’s eyes flitted between her and Raine when a low growl found its way into her voice.

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