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Kylie broke through her own curse without needing me to do it for her.

She was so much stronger than I had given her credit for. This was why the Moon Goddess had gifted me her as my mate: to teach me that strength wasn’t what I thought it was in our species. It wasn’t the abilities our lycans gave us, the power we wielded, or even the physical strength. Strength was more than that.

And she had it inside her all along.

“I had to find a way to connect with my lycan just to get through this pregnancy. I didn’t have you around, so it was the pack I found here that got me through it. You should have been theone to be there for me, but you weren’t. And there were times I wanted to die.”

“Then why run? You could have died out there.” My anger got the best of me again as I spat those words.

She snarled again. “I almost did! If you hadn’t rejected me, my lycan wouldn’t have grown weaker. It took more than you would ever know to break through all of that and connect with her. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have gone through any of this!”

Her words sliced through me like a sword to my chest. Of course, it was my fault. She felt better because of our bond and probably would have broken through whatever was holding her back if I hadn’t rejected her. I don’t know what she had done to achieve it, but I knew in my soul it was my fault it didn’t happen sooner.

I nodded. “You’re right.”

“Yeah, I’m fucking right. All you had to do was love me, Maximus. That’s all you had to do. When you did, I felt like I could take anything on and get through this bullshit connection with my lycan. If you had loved me for me, accepted me for everything I am, then we could have gotten through all of this together. You chose to throw that all away, not me. So stop trying to make it seem like me running away was the problem when it is the furthest thing from the truth.”

No one spoke to me like this. Ever. No one had the guts to do so, yet here was this little omega telling me exactly how she felt and not caring how she delivered that truth to me. I made a huge mistake by throwing her away. The fire inside of her was exactly what a luna and queen needed to rule over a kingdom. She was trying to protect herself and her pup from feeling anything lessthan what they were worth, proving to me once again why the Moon Goddess chose her for me.

“You are right again.” I sighed, and I felt tears welling in my eyes as I realized how deeply I had fucked things up. There wasn’t a chance she would take me back right now.

How could things get any worse than this? It was bad enough that I had a curse on me; now that curse may have cost me everything. Should I tell Kylie about the curse?

No. She wouldn’t believe me anyway. It would sound like an excuse instead of an explanation.

“Since you left, I have felt the absence of your presence in my soul. I cannot explain how much I’ve hated myself for what I did that drove you away. If I had done what any mate is programmed to do, we wouldn’t be in this mess. Like I said before, there aren’t enough words in existence to tell you how sorry I am.”

When I looked at her, I couldn’t tell what was going through her mind. If we were bonded, I could easily read the emotions swirling within her, but I didn’t have that to rely on.

“I would do anything to take back what I have done. It’s not because you are connected with your lycan or gave birth to my pup, so don’t try to use that against me here.” My throat was going dry as I spoke to her. There were so many things I wanted to say right now, but I wasn’t sure if I was strong enough to say them to her. Not with her looking at me like she wished I would walk out that door and never come back one minute, and unsure if she should listen to me the next. “It’s because I realized far too late how much you meant to me. Your strength has nothing to dowith your lycan—it has everything to do with you. Not everyone could survive what you did as a kid. I just wish I hadn’t realized all of this when it was too late.”

“Realized what?”

“How much I love you and need you in my life.”

30

Kylie

This couldn’t be happening. Just when I thought I could leave my old life behind, he walked back through the door. I was ready to raise the baby on my own, but seeing Maximus’s handsome face again threw me off my game. The pulling in my chest returned with full force, my soul crying out for the bond to be completed again. The yearning to feel his touch, his kiss, his everything made it that much harder to tell him to walk away.

I ran from him, and he was still telling me he loved me. Was this all a trick just to bring me back to the pack so he could have an heir to the throne? That had to be it since he didn’t seem to love me when I was too weak to walk around without his touch. I felt whole when we were together, but he devastated me with his rejection. He only loved me for the power I could bring him as a bonded mate.

Yeah. I’m not falling for that again.

It would be difficult, but I needed to keep him at arm’s length. I couldn’t get pulled back into the mess of loving someone who couldn’t love me in return unless I could give him something he wanted.

He is our mate. Max can keep us and our young safe.

No. He only wants us for what we can provide him.

He came back for us.

I highly doubted he came for us because he couldn’t live without us. That didn’t seem to be in Maximus’s repertoire. The man was angry and disappointed that he had a mate whose lycan was weak. It didn’t matter the designation; what mattered was strength.

“I… don’t—”

The door opened, and my nurse came in, holding my reason to breathe in her arms. “He woke up hungry. Are you ready to feed again?”