Page 28 of Bitten by Bloodmoon (Mateless Shifters #2)

Lumi

A mbrose —I whisper the single word in my head like a prayer and a curse. When I do, I feel the threads connecting me to him pulling, like I’m tugging him to me.

“My queen,” I hear him whisper. The connection is still faint, but it’s there.

I slam my mind shut. Shut it all out. Him. Nyx. I even try to shut myself off from my own thoughts.

“Thank you,” I say to Juliette and then quickly get up from the table and walk out of the house, needing some fresh air. I don’t know if Nyx stays to ask his own questions or immediately follows me outside.

When I step out into the crisp air, I take a long, deep breath as snow begins to fall, hitting the tip of my nose. I left my coat inside, but I’m not cold. The icy flakes seem to bring me alive, if anything.

Home, I miss home. That’s what this smells like. The small group living deep in a thick forest surrounded by snow. I miss my dad. I wish I could talk to him. I wish he weren’t dead.

The snow begins to fall faster, blanketing the ground in a delicate, glistening layer.

I move through it in my boots, each step releasing a soft, satisfying crunch beneath my feet.

The witches barely glance my way as I pass, their silence a wall I don't try to breach.

I focus only on the cold kiss of snow against my cheek, willing myself not to think, not to feel—just to exist in this quiet, frozen moment.

I don’t know how long I wander around their town.

But long enough that the snow is a couple of inches thick beneath my boots and the sun has begun to set.

Only then do I notice that Nyx has left the hut we were in and is now sitting in a chair by the fire, chatting with a couple of the other witches.

He looks up when he sees me approaching, but he doesn’t speak to me, nor does he invade my head to talk to me either. He’s let me have my space all day.

There is an empty chair on the other side of the fire, and I take a seat in it. I never got my coat. Never needed it. And now with the fire warming me, I definitely don’t need it.

“Soup or wine?” A witch to my left asks me.

“I’m sorry, what?” I ask, not sure I heard her.

“I can tell you’re in a frazzled state. Soup would heal you the best, but sometimes we aren’t in a place to heal and would prefer the wine to help dampen the pain you’re in.”

My stomach sours at the thought of food. “Wine would be great.”

She smiles and returns a moment later with a glass of red wine.

“Thank you. I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name.”

“It’s Starling. And I’m not a seer like Juliette is, and I don’t know what prophecy she told you. But I can sense great things will happen in your future.”

I take a long drink of my wine. “I would prefer if more average things happened to me. Not everything needs to be this big, massive thing. I’m just a girl—”

“No, you’re a snow wolf. One who doesn’t need a coat to stay warm. You’re a queen, destined to rule other wolves. You’re a curse breaker. And you’ll become many more things, but I’ll let you figure those things out yourself.”

I frown. “Has Nyx mentioned when he’d like to leave?”

“Your traveling companion has been very courteous. He’s been helping with some physical chores and answering all of our curious questions about what it’s like being an alpha and lord.

I doubt he’ll want to leave until morning, after his wounds heal, when he’s already been offered a bed to sleep in here.

It might appear rude, and your companion seems to want to make a good impression on us. ”

“Does he now?” I mutter under my breath, my gaze fixed on Nyx as he smiles and laughs at something the attractive witch to his left says.

He realized I’m not his mate, and that frees him to go sleep with any attractive woman he can find. He doesn’t need to hold out any longer.

I down the rest of my wine and then hand the witch back her glass. “Thank you for the wine.”

I stand, unsure of where I’m headed or what I’ll do, but I know I need to get away from here. I take two steps before I stumble, my head a little dizzy. I frown. I take another step, barely staying on my feet as the ground seems to shake so badly that it must be an earthquake.

“I’ve got you,” he slides into my head as his arms slide around my waist, holding my hands and bracing my forearms against his to keep me from falling again.

“Are you sure? It looked like you were getting awfully cozy with that witch. If she sees you holding me like this, she might not let you into her bed tonight,” I say back in his head, but I’m pretty sure I’m slurring my words, so I have no idea if all the words get through to him or not.

“I’m not going to respond to any of that since I know how spiked witches’ wine can be.”

“It’s spelled?”

“Most likely.”

I frown. “Are you sure an earthquake isn’t happening right now?”

“Very sure.”

I sigh. “Can you help me find someplace to sit down?”

He scoops me into his arms, not asking for permission.

“Put me down.”

“It will take you all night to walk to our hut if I do.”

Our hut—huh.

I stop protesting and let him carry me, mainly because the up is now down and down is now up, and my body is beginning to heat, and he smells so damn good, and…

He sets me down somewhere soft, but I barely register it. Just that his scent seems further away now. But it quickly returns.

“Here, drink this.”

My stomach balks at the idea of anything else entering it.

“Drink this, it will help. Just a couple of sips.”

I take the small cup from his hand and sip. Once, twice…it’s all I can do, but suddenly the world isn’t spinning so fast anymore.

“Better?”

I nod.

I finally glance around and realize I’m lying in a small bed covered in pink sheets. The walls are dressed in frilly lace and adorned with rosy-hued artwork—soft, delicate, and overwhelmingly pink. It’s far too much for my taste, like being smothered in cotton candy.

Nyx sits on the edge of the bed, studying me closely.

“I should probably just sleep it off.”

“You can in a minute. I need to make sure you’re okay first.”

“I’m fine after whatever it was that you made me drink.”

“It’s an antidote, but not enough to actually draw out all of the effects of the magical wine. Just enough to dampen the side effects.”

“Well, whatever it is, I feel much better.” My eyes draw up and down his sculpted body. A body I’d very much like to climb into my bed and—

“You’re screaming your thoughts again.”

I glare at him. “I am not.”

“You are. Once again, I won’t hold your thoughts against you because it’s the wine talking.”

“It’s not.”

“It is. That or you just really don’t want to deal with what the seer told us about who your mate is.”

I slump back in the bed, staring at the ceiling again.

“We don’t have to talk about it, but it might help you feel better if we do.”

“It won’t,” I say.

“Okay, then we don’t have to talk about it. Try to sleep.”

“I can’t sleep with you just staring at me like that. Go to your bed.”

“You’re lying in my bed.”

I frown. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that this tiny thing they call a bed is the only bed in the village they gave us.”

I groan. “Then I guess we should get an early start and head back now.”

He shakes his head. “That would be rude, and you’re in no state to go anywhere right now.”

I sit up, and the room starts spinning again. I fall back into the bed with another groan.

“Just get into bed then.”

He stares at me for a moment as if he’s going to refuse me, then stands and flicks off the light before climbing into the creaky bed, fully dressed.

I close my eyes, trying to fall asleep, but the nausea returns. It’s accompanied by a pounding headache that has nothing to do with the wine I drank.

I sit up, throwing the covers off me with a sigh.

“You might be okay with me not talking about the curse tonight, but the blood deal we made isn’t,” I say.

He sits up, and we lean against the pink fabric headboard. “I’m sorry. I can try to say I don’t care if you tell me again and see if your symptoms stop.”

“No, we should just talk.”

He waits silently for me to speak. I appreciate that, but I’m not sure where to start.

“I hate that my mate is chosen for me. To break the curse, I must accept the mate predestined for me. I have no say.”

“I hate the mating bond, too. I hate that love or choice don’t seem to matter to the gods. It’s why the curse was placed upon the wolf shifters to begin with. The mating bond was rejected, and we became cursed.”

“So if I reject my bond, another curse will be placed upon us?”

“I don’t know.”

“It’s not fair.”

“It’s not.”

“I’m not sure I can accept Ambrose as my mate after everything he’s done.”

“Then don’t. It’s your choice. You don’t have to accept the mating bond. You don’t have to believe the prophecies. You don’t have to break the curse. It’s your choice.”

I stare at him. “Why can you speak to me in my head? What is this connection we share?”

“I don’t know. We can ask the seer in the morning, but most will only tell one prophecy per person.”

“Did you ask a question then of the seer?”

“Yes, I asked her how to get your wolf back.”

“And what did she tell you?”

“She said it can’t be undone. Your wolf belongs to Ambrose.”

I grind my teeth, my hands fisting, and my mind sobering instantly. “How am I supposed to accept him as my mate if he can control such a huge part of me?”

“I don’t know. But we can keep talking to seers.

Keep trying to get answers. There must be other parts to the prophecy that we’re missing.

I don’t believe it’s as simple as you completing the marking ceremony and accepting him to break the curse.

And if you do it that way, it will only break the curse for wolf shifters, not all magical creatures. ”

“What if all the seers say the same thing?”

“Then that’s an answer.”

“Are you just saying this because you want to be my mate?”

“Do you want me to be your mate?”

“Way to make me try to answer that first.”

“I would be honored to be your mate. You’re strong, resilient, beautiful. I have never seen such bravery—every time I’m with you, you surprise me more, leaving me in awe. But that doesn’t mean that I am or that we would be any better fit together than you and Ambrose.”

I stare at him, really stare at him, trying to understand how this man killed Rowena in cold blood and yet says such things about me. Honored .

“But even if I am, I want you to have that choice. No one should ever have their choices taken away from them.”

“Kiss me.”

“What?”

“Kiss me, please.”

He frowns. “I’m not going to kiss you.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’re magically drunk, you don’t know what you really want right now. All of your inhibitions have been lowered.”

“I’m not magically drunk anymore. You gave me a tonic to help with that. And I told you what I want, I want you to kiss me, unless you don’t want to kiss me.”

“You’re drunk,” he says again, but it’s almost like he needs to remind himself of that fact. He starts to roll over, away from me.

I pout.

“Sleep, the second the alcohol finishes working its way out of your body, I’ll kiss you if you still want me to.

I’ll kiss you so many times that the gods will realize how foolish they were to pair you with anyone else but me.

That after you kiss me, you’ll think all your choices have been taken away from you because the way I kiss you will claim you as mine.

So stop pouting. Our first kiss was tainted by the life-or-death situation we were in.

I won’t let our second kiss be tainted by anything other than our desperate need to kiss each other. ”

My mouth hangs open wider with every word he says.

“Now, sleep, love, so that when you awaken, I can kiss your properly.”

I bite my lower lip and try to close my eyes, knowing there is no way I’ll be getting any sleep tonight after that proclamation.