Finally, exhausted, I ripped off my clothes.
Then I whispered to the snakes to thank them, ordering them to release Freya.
No longer did I flinch from fear at Freya’s touch or my own nakedness, as we slept cuddled together in bed.
Yet when Freya woke up, it was as if something had shifted in the night.
As if she was no longer my bond mate.
As if she knew what I had done to Dove and there would be no more sweet nights of touching…and possibly, I would have no knot…if I didn’t bring him back to the nest by the end of the night.
I didn’t imagine that I would need to call a healer for him when I brought him home.
By my blood, I am canceling those barbaric Hunts. No more Shadow Humans will die for sport, while I am king.
Should I have known that there was more to the training in the Blood Lover’s Guild than singing, dancing, and looking pretty?
I thought that Dove would be chosen in the Hunt by a respectable elite, who would cherish him for his special blood, while allowing him to spend his ruts with his soulmate. I still wanted to see him; apart from Aurelius, nobody had been interested in becoming friends with me before.
If my fangs hadn’t pulsed with pain every time that I even glanced at a Shadow Human’s neck, I hadn’t been starving with thirst, and if my knot hadn’t brought me to my knees with agony every rut that I spent alone, then I would have looked closer at how Blood Lovers were being used in my kingdom.
I’ve failed my own Blood Lover.
I clench my jaw.
I’ve failed my Omega too because breaking up the two soulmates shattered them both in a way that I didn’t expect.
Yet was I wrong to test the type of fae Dove is?
Now I know how loyal Dove is. How brave. How strong his love and friendship are.
The Shadow Human who Dove tried to protect was lucky. Well, he would have been.
I’ve also learned that Dove is a rebellious schemer.
Have I met anyone with his level of earnestness before? Devotion? Commitment?
Certainly, not within the Blood Court.
I thought that I had in Aurelius…
My chest twinges.
I’ll make it up to Dove.
I swear on my blood that I will keep my deal with him and make this right. I have already made plans to return that Shadow Human’s body, who Dove wept over, to his village with honors. I shall build him a shrine in our room.
Will Dove forgive me then?
My shadows wrap around me like smoke.
Will Dove forgive me, if I kill Nebet for him?
Nebet has spent years carving into me, calling ittamingthe beast. No matter what I have done, I haven’t been able to prove that I’m not the monster they all fear.
What if I stop trying?
Because this time, Nebet used the iron Night Sky Blade, my mother’s own weapon that she took from me, to carve intomyfae like he was one of her blood sacrifices.
