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Her laugh was musical, and I felt like I was put in a trance. I stared at her and waited for the answers to my questions. I might be afraid of her, but if she wanted to reveal that she knew Maximus and had done something to him, she needed to come clean. This was putting me on edge, and my blood pressure machine started to beep. Zephyrine waved her hand, and the machine stopped.

Oh great. Now a nurse won’t come in to check on me. That makes me feel better.

“I’m sure you could guess what he had done. You spent time with him.”

That couldn’t mean…

“Oh yes. He did the same thing to me as he did to you. Led me to believe everything was perfect just to tear my heart out.”

My mouth dropped open at her admission. She was lying. This had to be a lie.

Yet I could sense the truth in her words.

“You mean to tell me Max chose you as a mate, then rejected your bond?”

“Heavens, no!” She laughed, and there was a layer to it that made my hair stand on end. I never wanted to see this woman pissed off. “We dated for a bit. Right when I thought thingswould get serious and he’d choose me as a mate, he broke my heart.”

Well, that felt more believable. Maximus willingly choosing a witch to be his mate felt out of character. What he did to Zephyrine—making her fall for him, then walking away—was exactly what he had done to me.

“So… you cursed him for breaking your heart.”

She nodded. “Oh yes. You don’t cross someone like me and expect to get away with it. He should have known better than that.”

“What’s the curse, and what does it have to do with me?”

She tilted her head and made a face I couldn’t quite distinguish. “Oh, sweetie… It has everything to do with you. Why do you think he couldn’t recognize how he felt about you until you were gone?”

What?

This bitch made the curse so he wouldn’t know how he felt about me? That meant this whole time he struggled to connect with me for a different reason than I thought. It wasn’t about me being weak… It was about him not feeling the connection! The bond wasn’t stronger than the curse. It should have been, but it wasn’t!

“You… It’s your fault!” I screamed.

I probably shouldn’t have been yelling at someone who could kill me with a snap of her fingers, but this wasn’t something I couldcontain. The anger inside me rose to an unfathomable level as I waited for her to respond. The room fell silent enough for me to hear both of our heartbeats. Mine pulsed fast from the stress this whole interaction was causing me, but hers remained calm.

I’d love to smack this shit out of her for doing this to us. Maximus had to have known he had a curse placed on him and how it led to our bond not settling properly for him. Why wouldn’t he tell me about this?

“No. It was his fault. The curse isn’t holding the same way it used to, so he’s probably just now realizing he fell in love with you—too late. A shame, really. It was much too late for him in this case.”

I growled, and my lycan howled mournfully for our mate. Maximus might have broken my heart, but now I knew why. This was all too much for me to digest, and I wanted to send this witch out of this clinic and find a way to contact Maximus to discuss this. He needed to know. Maybe he didn’t talk to me about it before because he didn’t know the curse had been placed on him.

But then those words replayed in my head.

It was much too late for him in this case.What the hell did that mean?

“What are you talking about?”

She smiled, and it sent a shiver down my spine. “Because it will cost him his son’s life.”

33

Kylie

The witch disappeared in a blink, and the machines went off as my blood pressure skyrocketed. Nurses rushed in and helped me bring my blood pressure down again, but it wasn’t enough for them not to be concerned. I mentioned not allowing Zephyrine to visit me again, but they kept telling me no one had come into the room.

“We were going to let you go home today, but I don’t think that’s a good idea. We’re going to keep you for observation since your blood pressure won’t stay normal.”

“It was because of the witch who came to visit me!” My voice rose as I said it through clenched teeth.