"Where did you go when you got out?"
"Home." The word was simple, but the swell of emotion that thickened my throat even further was anything but. "My mother hated me for taking her mate from her. She hid her son from me after he answered the door. He looked identical to her mate. I couldn't handle that any more than I could handle her hatred, so I left."
I stared down at the blanket that covered my lap. "News about what I could do had spread to the pixie settlement nearby, and their queen offered me food and a safe, secluded place to live if I killed her abusive mate. It was my first bargain."
"At fifteen?"
"Yes. Her story reminded me of my own too much to refuse. I ended his life, and I was safe and provided for indefinitely in exchange. Callum joined me there a decade later, and Darius and Liv followed eventually. We stayed until we needed to create Rumor. When my power would get too difficult to contain, I found a woman who looked like she'd been through hell, and made a bargain with her to drain the life from whoever had hurt her."
"That continued after you came here."
"It did. Eventually, there were more women to bargain with than I needed to keep my magic under control. When that happened, I killed simply because I couldn't stand the idea of another woman experiencing what I had. No one should ever be treated that way. Taken advantage of because they're smaller, weaker, prettier, or kinder."
"Absolutely fucking not."
Grayson finally grabbed me by my thighs and lifted me onto his lap. The blanket fell lower, exposing my bare breasts, but his gaze remained locked with mine.Our skin wasn't touching, so I was paying the price of my magic, but the overwhelm was manageable with his shadows around me.
He'd never looked at me like this. Like he was fighting to stay in control.
His shadows flickered around us wildly, angrily, as if they'd taken on a life of their own.
I searched his eyes for a sign that he was disgusted or annoyed. That he judged me for anything I'd told him. That his opinion of me had changed, he wanted me to be someone else, or he wished I was different.
I didn't find any of it.
"I'm not your mother's mate any more than you're her." His voice was low and rough.
My eyes burned with his words.
He took my face in his hands. The moment his fingers touched me, my inner world went silent.
No noise.
No stress.
No overwhelm.
Just me, and Grayson.
Bliss.
Complete, utter bliss.
His hands were so big, and so warm.
The touch felt so good that the burning in my eyes became straight-up watering.
"We are not them, and we are not doomed," he said, lowering his forehead to mine. I pulled him closer, breathing his scent in as he held me.
"Do you really think so?" I finally asked.
"I'd bet everything on it."
I hoped he was right.
We fell back asleepfor another hour or two before an alarm went off on Grayson's phone. My lips curved just a little when I woke up in his arms.
He groaned quietly, rubbing his bleary eyes. "I've got to get back to the mansion. People die every time I leave."
