Page 55 of Blood of the Fallen
Maki and Novuk, looking relieved, also took a step forward.
“Desna speaks lies,” Novuk said.
“I can understand why everyone is willing to believe the sordid claim,” Maki said, raising an eyebrow and looking conceited. “I mean… It is customary for one of the triad members to mate with their alpha. Everyone knows that.”
I cringed. What was he going on about? He needed to shut up, but to my dismay, he kept going.
“You do want our pack to grow stronger, don’t you?”
Everyone exchanged confused glances. Kall gave him a pointed look that clearly saidWould you shut up?
“But it was never in the stars for Sheela and me. Right, Bethel?”
The witch rolled her eyes and shook her head, looking mortified for Maki’s sake.
“Not that I had that sort of interest in her.” His eyes flashed to Ila’s for an instant. “But the moment Kall told me that—”
Novuk wrapped his arm around the back of Maki’s neck and clamped a huge hand over his mouth. “You don’t know when to shut up.”
Wait! What was he going to say about Kall?
Maki went on mumbling under the cage of Novuk fingers. He tried to get free but only half-heartedly.
Looking nervous—something I’d never seen—Kall approached and stopped right in front of me.
“Sheela, this isn’t the way I wanted you to find out.” His emerald eyes searched mine, and suddenly, everyone else seemed to disappear.
“I’ve known from the moment I first saw you. It was the reason I went to Lux City to get you.” He swallowed thickly, struggling with the words.
Why was he so nervous? All the time, he was nothing but self-assured. Seeing him like this made my heart feel ready to squeeze through my rib cage. He was afraid of whatever he was about to tell me. Why? How bad was it? I didn’t know, but one thing was certain, his hesitation told me I wouldn’t like it.
“Sheela… we… we’re fated mates.”
I blinked up at him.
Fated mates?
Unsure of what that meant, I shook my head.
I was dimly aware of the people around us murmuring in surprise, but Kall’s gaze held me so utterly that the rest of the pack barely seemed like ghosts at the fringes of my vision. I bit my lower lip, sensing that Kall expected something from me. I just didn’t know what.
“Say something, please,” he implored, looking vulnerable.
“I… I don’t know what to say.”
I knew that when shifters mated, it was like a marriage. Of course, there was no legal contract—at least not among the tribal shifters in these lands. Still, there was an agreement between the couple and, hopefully, love too. Butfated mates? That was different. That meant… what? That the couple in question had no choice in the matter? I was certainly attracted to Kall. There was no denying it, but…
Kall reached for my hand and took it in his. “My bond snapped into place that very first night.”
Bond? Snapped into place? I had no idea what he was talking about. This wasn’t something they had ever mentioned to us at the Academy.
“I know yours hasn’t,” he continued. “That’s why I hadn’t mentioned anything. I wanted you to… feel it.”
Interlacing his fingers with mine, he lifted my hand until it was parallel with my face. Swallowing thickly, he closed his eyes, and I nearly gasped when his hand started glowing around mine. I pulled back and stared at my fingers. They looked normal, but his were still glowing, and they didn’t stop until he lowered his hand and made a fist at his side.
“The bond is… one-sided right now,” he said, the words choppy as if it pained him to admit this. “I think that maybe, at first, when you were angry at me, at us,” he glanced around, “and you made that vow, remember it?” He inclined his head, narrowing his eyes. He clearly didn’t want to repeat what I’d said to him—not in front of all these people—but I remember it very well.
This, I swear to you, I will never be yours.
