Page 111 of Malice
“You can touch her in dreams, Grimsby. You can have her just as we do. Tell me you didn’t feel some sort of shift between the two of you. The rest of us have experienced it. I don’t think you’re exempt from that.”
His only outward response was a visible shudder. He didn’t want to admit I was right, but I could see plainly enough that I was. So I kept pushing.
“Fate found a mate that you could be with. Perhaps it's not in the traditional manner, but it’s no less real. Would you really spit in the face of destiny after all you have been through? She is everything you ever wanted, right there, just waiting for you to accept her.”
Grim shut down before my eyes. I’d been so close to reaching him, but my words backfired.
“I don’t deserve a mate. Leave me. Go after her if you must, but I am not her mate. I never will be, and you three are fools if you think you will ever be granted a happily ever after.”
I had one last card to play.
“You could lose her, Grimsby. Forever. Is that really worth risking?”
His knuckles turned white where they gripped the mantel, but he spun away, cloaking himself in shadow so no more of his secrets could betray him. “I never had her to begin with.”
“You heard him, Chaos. Leave him,” Malice said, standing and making his way to the door. “Let him cling to his lies. Perhaps the rest of us can mend some of the damage he’s caused in the meantime.”
“It wasn’t just him,” I pointed out. “Our silence didn’t help.”
“We are not normal men. Merri will take that into account.”
“Will she?” I asked, following him out the door.
“We can only hope.”
Chapter
Thirty-Two
MALICE
Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d end up on the side of... feelings. But here I was, fighting with Grimsby over a woman. The problem was, her statement had been so truthful I could taste it. She was my soulmate, even though Grim was right—that shouldn’t be a possibility for any of us.
It made a twisted sort of sense. She was destined to be mine. Of course I hadn’t been able to resist her. The fault wasn’t mine; it was fate’s. What a fucking relief. I’d been so stunned by the realization that I hadn’t been fully present in the room until Merri was already on her way out.
I knew there would be hell to pay for that, but it was hardly the first time I’d had to make amends with my hellcat. We’d sort it out. Hell, I’d grovel if I had to. Can’t say I’d ever done it before, but how hard could it be to figure out?
The thought of lowering myself to grovel actually made my skin crawl. I’d come close to it once, long ago, when I’d begged for Odette to let me have contact with my son. I had nothing to apologize for in that situation, so perhaps begging brought me lower than groveling ever would. For Merri, I was reasonablycertain I’d drop to my knees, crawl across the floor, and kiss her pretty toes if it meant she’d forgive me.
Fuck.
A groveling expert, I was not, but I was fairly certain I shouldn’t be hard at the thought of it.
Maybe I was picturing it wrong?
Shaking my head, I strode down the hall and back toward the main staircase.
“Do you really think she would have gone to her room?” Chaos asked, trailing behind me.
“No, probably not. She most likely wanted to get as far away from the four of us as possible.”
“We should search the grounds, then.”
“Agreed, but let’s be diligent and check her room anyway. Just to be sure. Merri’s contrary enough she could have popped up there for spite.”
Chaos offered me a curt nod and took the stairs two at a time, leaving me in his wake. I might be eager to mend things with my succubus, but I wasn’t in a rush to swallow my pride.
“She’s not there. Don’t waste your time,” Sin said, emerging from Merri’s room, shoulders slumped. “We really fucked up. I even checked under the bed and in the tub. No sign of her.”
