Page 45 of Alice and Her Shifters (Dirty Paranormal Fairytale Haremlan 2)

Calvin shrugged. “I only know of one thing for certain, and that is Milo is doing a fine job of screwing everything up. We don’t need you adding to it by planting seeds into her mind to make a choice between the three of us.”

I sighed. “How do you know that’s what I’m doing? How can you say for sure I’m purposefully trying to sabotage the prophecy? Besides, that’s Milo. Not me. I only want what’s best for her.”

“I think I preferred you in your confused and clouded state. You talk too much,” he said as he ran his hand over the top of his head.

“You didn’t answer my question,” I stated.

“I didn’t want anything to do with this mess to begin with,” Calvin said as he took a few steps away and stared up at the night sky.

I did the same, watching as thin clouds billowed over the stars and universe high above us. I sighed.

“Milo was the one who dragged me into this. He was the one that said he needed me to steal something. Promised he could save my head. I was a fool then, and I’m even more so one now.”

“What about now?” I asked. “What about then?”

Calvin groaned. “I couldn’t leave her if I tried.”

“You’re the sun for the rose,” I said. “I’m the rain.”

Calvin snorted. “What? Does that mean Milo is the soil?”

I laughed again. I wanted to say “precisely.” But it appeared that this bout of clarity was coming to an end. And I hated it. I wondered if there would ever be a day when I didn’t slip. Would I always be disabled and never reach my old self again? Did I even want to?

“Idiot,” Calvin muttered.

“I… would die… for her,” I said, struggling to keep what was left of my clarity, though the effort was much easier than it had been. That wasn’t to say there wasn’t a challenge to the whole talking in complete sentences and with words that made sense. “Gleeful crimson.”

“Me too, Aidan…” Calvin said. “Me too.”

“Do you see?” I asked.

Calvin settled his questioning gaze on me again. He barely shook his head and took a look around.

I smiled. “Damned indeed.”

Calvin met my gaze, sighed, and nodded. “Fair point, my friend. Fair point.”

I slid along the outside wall of the mill to the ground. I stretched out my legs and crossed them at the ankles. “Milo challenges the prophecy.”

“I got it,” Calvin said. “You don’t need to continue to explain. You’re starting to not make sense again.”

I nodded. “No three. No free.”

Calvin groaned. His feet shuffled toward the other side of the door, where he took a seat against the mill, himself. “Where do you think he went off to this time?”

“Solitude,” I said and chuckled. “Secrets.”

Calvin shushed me. “Keep it down. Allison needs all the rest she can get.”

I looked into the mill and sighed as my eyes fell on her sleeping form. “Beautiful rose. Will bloom soon.”

My heart clenched at the thought of her leaving. She wanted so badly to go back to her home and live out the rest of her life. I wanted to give her anything that would make her happy and keep her that way.

Even if it meant never seeing her again.

She had to choose all three of us to have a glimmer of hope for our curses being broken, much less a shot at spending the rest of my life with her… even if I had to share her. With Milo’s tendency to be a bit possessive, she was slipping further away from us. He was going to ruin everything if he didn’t pull his head out of his ass and get his shit together.

And there wasn’t a single damn thing I could do to stop it. I was being forced to watch the woman I was falling in love with slip through my fingers. The pain in my chest felt like a hole was being dug. My small crater that only she could fill.

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