Page 44 of Blood Vows
“Vas… I am sorry… I…”
“No!” he said again, louder this time, his voice carrying over the rain.
“You’re wrong,” he started again, and I frowned through the blur of my tears.
“What… what are you talking about?” He stepped closer, shaking his head as though trying to dispel the words. His hand came up, fingers curling as if he wanted to reach for me but couldn’t trust himself to.
“You’re wrong,” he said again, his voice lower now, rough and trembling with conviction.
“I know because I am not cursed.” I let my face fall, my gaze lowering to his wet booted feet and my soaking wet socks, caked in mud.
“You don’t understand…this isn’t real for you,” I said, but when I felt his fingers grip my chin, I lifted my head as he applied pressure.
“Is it real for you?” he asked, his voice soft in its vulnerability. And I couldn’t stand it any longer as I pulled myself from him, walking away.
“I asked you a question, Nessa, is it real for you?” his tone was hard and desperate for my answer. One I didn’t want to give, because it was just too cruel, this fucked up fate of mine! To let me fall in love with three men who were only ever cursed into loving me in return.
Which is when my anger erupted. My hands came up at the same time I faced him.
“Of course, it was! Is that what you want to hear me say? That I have fallen in love with three brothers that I know will one day wake up and realize it was all a lie! That you will get to go on with your lives, leaving me as a hollow shell after you have all stripped me of everything! Do you think I will ever be whole again after knowing that this is what love really is!? That this is what it feels like to love you?” His eyes closed as he raised his head to the sky,as if begging the heavens to wash away his sins of the curse with the rain.
“Say it again,” he said, shocking me.
“What?”I uttered as I blinked at him, confusion and disbelief tangling inside me.
He closed the distance between us in a single step, the storm swirling around him like it bent to his will. His hand came to the back of my neck, cold and unyielding as he pulled me toward him, his breath mingling with mine.
“I am not cursed,”he whispered fiercely, his eyes burning with a truth that terrified me.
“And neither are they.” My lips parted, a protest rising, but he cut through it with words that felt like a spell.
“You are not just theirs, Nessa…” he said, his voice dark and reverent.
“You’re also mine.”I froze, my breath catching as the lightning came back, as if sealing the claim. It lit his face, giving strength to the undeniable truth.
“You belong to me,” he said, the words low and trembling with the force of something ancient and powerful.
“Just as you belong to them.You belong to us all.”The thunder crashed above us, the world spinning beneath the weight of his confession. And though every part of me wanted to run, another part…deeper, older, and far less rational…couldn’t move at all.
Because somewhere inside me, something knew.
Something that had always known.
The world tilted again, only this time it wasn’t because of his words. It was because they broke me.
The truth of them sank deep, shattering everything I thought I understood. The air left my lungs in a sob that tore itself free before I could stop it, my body trembling as the rain continued to pour down on us.
He reached for me, but I shook my head, the tears hot against the cold rain.
“No… No, this can’t be real…. None of this can be real.” I whispered, choking on the word. But it was. I could feel it. The bond that pulsed like a second heartbeat beneath my skin. The same one I had tried so hard to deny. I took a step back, my knees weakening beneath the weight of it all. My vision blurred, and I barely felt it when my legs finally gave way.
Before I could hit the ground, his arms were around me.
Strong and steady, he caught me as though he’d been waiting for that exact moment. His grip was firm, one arm beneath my knees, the other cradling my back. Now holding me as if I were something precious he was terrified of breaking.
I wanted to fight him, to push him away, to tell him I hated him for confusing me even more than the world already had. But I couldn’t.
I couldn’t even find my voice.
