Page 45 of Bitten by Bloodmoon (Mateless Shifters #2)

Ambrose

M y eyes snap open, my breath catching in my chest. I gasp for air, like I haven’t been breathing any oxygen for hours. I try to sit up, but a soft hand on my chest holds me back.

“Shhh, it’s okay. You’re going to be okay. You’re safe. Take it easy.”

Lumi .

I look to her and can breathe again fully. My face lights up at the sight of her.

“You’re here,” I say.

She takes my hand in hers and gives me a gentle squeeze. She has some moisture in her eyes, like she’s spent the entire night crying.

“Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

She shakes her head, wiping away a tear she couldn’t contain. “I’m fine. Riven made sure of that.”

“Who’s Riven?”

“That would be me,” a tall man with a thick braid says from behind where Lumi is sitting. He’s leaning over the bed beside me, too focused on what he’s doing to notice me. “I’m a healer. You were pretty close to death when I arrived. You’d lost over ninety percent of your blood.”

I blink in surprise. “You’re a healer? But you’re—”

“A man and a Bloodmoon pack member, I know. But you’re also a witch.

It’s rare, but a few men are blessed with the gift.

At least, I was. My mother was a witch, and my father was a wolf shifter.

I was born just before the curses started.

” Riven finally glances my way. “You should take it easy today, but I expect you’ll feel back to normal by tonight.

Anything still hurting that I can make better? ”

My entire body feels sore, but I know that’s normal after what I went through. His tone is friendly but also rushed—it’s clear his attention is needed elsewhere.

“No, I’m good.”

He nods. “As far as Lumi is concerned, I healed her wounds too, although her’s weren’t life-threatening, thank gods.”

“Good.” I look up at Lumi. “I’m so sorry. I don’t know how they knew we were going to be here. I didn’t intend to set you up. I—”

“I know. It’s not your fault. It was risky to meet. I should have known that we’d all be tracked. Until the curse is broken, we are going to be hunted like crazy now that everyone knows only one creature’s curse can be broken.”

“It’s important, though. Whatever it is you want to talk about is important.”

She nods, squeezing my hand tighter. For a second, I think she wants to do more than just squeeze my hand.

I hold my breath. Has she forgiven me for the unforgivable?

“He’s waking up,” Riven says from behind her.

She doesn’t hesitate. She lets go of my hand and rushes to the other bed in the room, to his bed.

“Nyx,” her voice breaks around his name.

I turn my head toward the window, trying to give them privacy, but it’s hard when we’re all in the same room and her mind is still so open to all of us.

“I release you from our blood deal. I’m so sorry, I should never have asked you to use your mind control to help me shift. I release you!” She sobs against his chest.

Blood deal?

He used mind control?

My hands fist, wanting to punch the bastard, but I know that wouldn’t win me any points as far as Lumi is concerned.

I block out the rest of their conversation to the best of my ability in my head.

“Are you both up for talking?” Lumi says suddenly, bringing me out of the forced aloneness I’d been in.

Both Nyx and I nod.

Riven looks at Lumi. “I’ll be in the living room trying not to listen if you need me. Take it easy, all three of you.”

We all watch as he leaves, the air as awkward and tense as one would expect.

I glance over at Nyx, who looks like he’s been through hell. His skin is pale, bruises and scars still cover his body, and he looks as if he stands up, he’ll topple over.

“You don’t look much better yourself,” he says to me in Lumi’s head.

Lumi gives Nyx a sharp look. “Did you get that out of your system? I need you two not to kill each other until this conversation is over.”

Nyx gives her a clipped nod.

She’s sitting in a chair exactly between our two beds. I hate this. I want to get out of this bed for this conversation.

“I agree. I feel like I’m locked in a hospital room,” Nyx says.

“Stop listening to my thoughts, asshole.”

“Stop shouting them in her head, then motherfucker.”

Lumi sighs. “If we move this to the back porch, do you two promise to behave?”

“Yes,” we both say simultaneously.

I climb out of bed first, immediately regretting my choice. That is, until I see Nyx moving even slower than I, and I know he’s hurting as badly or worse. Neither of us groans nor makes a sound about our discomfort. We both have too much pride for that.

Lumi decides to stay out of it completely and walks into the small kitchen that I stocked when I first arrived.

I hear her clinking around the cabinets.

Riven says something to her, and her response is, “They’re both stubborn assholes, is what they are.

I’ll let you know if one of them starts bleeding again. ”

Riven chuckles. “I’m staying out of it unless they’re about to die.”

“Smart move.”

It’s then that I realize I haven’t thanked Riven. “Thank you for helping me. I know you’re Bloodmoon, and our packs are enemies. You didn’t have to help me, but I’m eternally in your debt for healing me.”

Riven’s eyes widen like they are about to jump out of his head. “I would do anything for Lumi. But you can repay me by not killing my friend out there.”

“I’ll do my best.”

Riven nods.

I head outside onto the deck that has an expansive view of the forest as the sun is beginning to set.

Lumi comes outside with a bottle of whiskey and three glasses. She hastily pours the liquid into the three glasses, giving us each several shots worth of the alcohol.

I raise my eyebrows at her. “We’re going to need it.”

I look back at the door, waiting for Nyx to come out.

“He’s waiting until the sun fully sets,” Lumi says, taking a long drink.

I nod, forgetting that he can’t come out in the sun. Lumi hands me a drink, her eyes skimming my bare chest as she does, but I can’t tell if it’s because she’s looking for injuries or out of lust.

Finally, the door opens and Nyx appears. He takes the chair on the other side of Lumi. She hands him his whiskey.

“Who was she?” Lumi starts, not wasting any time or hesitating. She speaks to both of us simultaneously.

Nyx and I exchange glances, both of us as confused as the other about what she means or what she wants to talk about.

Lumi sighs. “I want to know why you both hate each other. What is your history together? How did you become a witch, and how did you become a vampire? It must have started with a girl. I want to hear it from both of you at the same time so I’m not just getting one side of the story.

I want to know everything. I need to know everything. ”

“Raya, her name was Raya.” Nyx swallows down a lump in his throat, glaring at me like he’s definitely going to kill me during this conversation.

I glare right back. Yeah, someone is going to die.

“And she was my sister,” Nyx finishes.

Lumi looks to me, waiting for my response.

“She was my first love. I thought she was my mate,” I say.

“Raya was bright, a free spirit,” Nyx says.

“She was adventurous, with a spunk I’d never seen in a woman before,” I continue. That is, until you, my queen.

Lumi smiles, encouraging us both to keep talking. She doesn’t hold any grudges about me loving a woman before her.

“Raya knew we were mates. We fell in love hard and fast. It felt different than anything I’d ever experienced or seen with others before,” I say.

Lumi’s eyes widen at the “fell in love” part, already knowing exactly where this conversation is going from my point of view.

“If we were mates, we never found out. Before we could mark each other, Raya was killed.” I glare at Nyx, who is silently watching me, his own rage barely contained. I look at him, waiting to see if he wants to do the honor or if I should.

“I killed her,” Nyx says.

Lumi gasps, her head whipping to Nyx. She wasn’t expecting that part of the story. “I don’t understand. You loved Raya?”

Nyx nods. “I loved her more than anything in this world. She was my sister. My best friend. My entire universe. I would have done anything for her.”

“Then why? What happened?” Lumi’s voice is soft. She doesn’t think of him as a killer.

Nyx looks at me with shadows and moisture gathering in his eyes.

“Ask him. His magic forced me to kill her. Do you know what it feels like to not have control over your own body? To fight with everything inside you to keep yourself from killing someone so innocent and kind and perfect? I snapped her neck with my bare hands and then cried over her body, as confused as ever about why I killed her.”

“I told you I was cursed. I didn’t put a spell on you. I didn’t realize until it was too late,” I say.

“You went to the witches, asking them to become one so you’d be the most powerful alpha in existence. So that you could find your mate. You knew what your curse was. You were so threatened by me and Raya that you forced me to kill her!”

Lumi reaches for Nyx, but then thinks better of it. She’s trying so hard to remain neutral in all of this. It’s important for her to hear the entire story before she chooses whose side she’s on.

“How did you become a witch?” Lumi asks.

“It wasn’t my choice. I was kidnapped by the Moonfire witches. When I woke up, I was a witch and had a deal with them. I didn’t ask for this life.”

“How did you become a vampire?” Lumi asks Nyx.

“Him—after I killed Raya, he hunted me down, drove me into a house of vampires, thinking they would kill me. But I survived. They turned me.”

“And then you killed my entire family and half my pack. You killed my father, my brother, and some of my closest friends. You killed without remorse. And you won’t stop killing.

You blame me for Raya’s death when it wasn’t my fault she died.

It was my curse that I didn’t know existed until she died. You even killed Rowena.”

“And I don’t regret a single death,” Nyx says.

Lumi shakes her head at both of us as she listens to us speaking and mutters under her breath. “Hating each other has all been a misunderstanding.”

She looks up, her gaze meeting mine. “Tell him—tell him what your witches curse is.”

“No.”

She gives me a look that says if I don’t, then she will. But I don’t want to make him feel any better. He killed everyone in retaliation. It won’t make him stop hating me.

“My witches’ curse is that when I fall in love with someone, they die.

When I fell in love with Raya, she became destined to die.

I don’t know why the curse chose you to carry it out.

But the magic found you and forced you to be the one to kill her.

But it was me falling in love with her that sparked the magic and stirred the curse.

It’s why I’m so careful around Lumi because even though I believe she’s my mate, I can’t fall in love with her. If I fall in love with her, she’d die.”

“Why didn’t you tell me it was your curse that caused me to kill her?” Nyx growls, his rage overwhelming.

“Because by the time I had realized what had happened, you were already a vampire and had killed so many people in my life that I could never forgive you or myself. And when I told you it wasn’t me, it was a curse, even though I didn’t give you the details, you didn’t believe me.

You thought I wanted you to kill Raya. I loved her. ” My voice breaks.

Silence stretches between us before Nyx’s eyes go wide.

“You loved Rowena,” he says.