Page 94 of Bitten By Bloodmoon
“What is it?”
She bites her lower lip and then asks, “And Ambrose?”
Oh.
I sit down in the chair next to the bed, giving her space. “I don’t know. You should ask him yourself how he’s doing.” I hesitate before saying the next part, “He’s the reason we’re all alive, unharmed.”
She squints her eyes at me. “What do you mean?”
I sigh. “He let me hurt him like that for me to make the trade for you.”
“But he came with Isolde. He’s on her side. He thinks you’re mind controlling me. He thinks I’m still his mate. Why not let Isolde kidnap me?”
“You’d have to ask him. But from my perspective, he doesn’t want you to get hurt in order for him to accomplish his goals.”
Her mind grows warm like a small fireplace has been lit in the corner, bringing a warm, earthy scent to her mind. She pushes me back, my cold, shadows coming with me.
I pull myself out of her head, giving her the privacy she seems to want in this moment. I know they are talking, and I try to distract myself, but it’s impossible to do so.
“Ambrose is alive.”
“Good.”
“It was strange being in my wolf form. I don’t know whether to thank him for that or still hate him.”
I’m silent, letting her process her own feelings.
“We’re running out of time, aren’t we?” she asks.
I nod. “Two weeks. We have two weeks until the next full moon. Until your next chance at breaking the curse.”
Ask me. Ask me everything.
She stares at me, really stares. “What?” I ask.
“I heard that. Your inner thoughts. I know you weren’t trying to talk to me, but I heard them anyway.”
I’m silent, just watching her decide what she’s going to do with that information.
“I can’t ask you.”
I wait for her to say more, but she doesn’t. “What do you mean?”
“I can’t ask you. Call it intuition or part of the prophecy, but I’ve had dreams about both of you. And every time they make it clear that I shouldn’t ask you about your history with Ambrose. I shouldn’t ask why you hate each other. I shouldn’t ask how you became a vampire and him a witch. I shouldn’t ask more about your curses. It will interfere with figuring out who my mate is.”
She takes a deep breath. “I want to know. I want to know what pain you endured that made what those witches did to you barely affect you. I want to know how you became who you are. I want to know the truth about what happened between you and Ambrose. I want to know, should I side with the witches or vampires, or should I only care about the wolf shifters? But I have to be patient. If I ask those questions too soon…”
I flip into her mind, needing to hear the words she won’t say out loud.
“I’m the spark that will start a war. A war that only one of you will survive. And if I choose whose side I’m on too soon, if I choose my mate wrong, it’s more than just about breaking the curse. We will all be doomed by the gods. They’ll swallow the earth whole—destroying everything.”
“When do you get to ask?”
“After I’ve figured out and accepted who my mate is.”
I want to ask her how close she is to figuring that out, but her not asking any of the questions she wants to ask makes it clear that she doesn’t have the answer. And as much as I try to reassure her that it’s her choice, the gods have already chosen her mate. What she does with the information about her mate is her real choice.
She should know the truth before she has to make any decisions. But for now, I’ll respect that her intuition or prophecy or whatever is telling her she shouldn’t ask the questions yet.
