I nodded. “But I don’t really know the whole story.”
He sighed. “When the Fae Lords took my throne over two hundred years ago—”
I gasped. Okay, he just admitted he was over two hundred years oldandthat he’d had a throne. He saidthrone!
“When the Fae Lords took my kingdom,” he went on. “They cursed my mate, Lena.” He stroked the very first name tattooed across his arm. “Her curse is that she would die on her twentieth birthday and reincarnate again and again and again.”
Chills rose on my arms as I processed what he’d just said.
“So those names…?” I reached out and touchedTabitha.
He nodded. “All her. She finds me in every lifetime, usually when she only has about a year left of life. Her memory comes back to her on her nineteenth birthday. Right around your age…”
It was like he’d sucked all of the oxygen from the truck. My conversation with Maddy at the hotel bloomed in my mind and I swallowed hard. “And you think I’m her? Lena? Your… mate?”
He nodded. “I do.”
I wanted it to be true in that instant, because it was just so romantic, but I knew I wasn’t her. “But I’m nineteen and I don’t remember you. You said she always remembers you by then?”
He chewed at his lip. “She does, but—”
“Maddy made it seem like you think any girl around my age could be her.” Okay, not technically true, but that’s what I thought and I was going to throw Maddy under the bus to express my feelings.
His teeth clamped shut. “Maddy has no faith that Lena will come anymore.”
“Why not?” I shrugged. “She’s come…” I counted the names.
“Eight times. I’ve married her and loved her eight times in eight different bodies.” His voice was filled with so much adoration that it made butterflies take flight in my stomach.
The entirety of that sentence was so swoon-worthy I could barely handle it. But I wasn’t someone else reincarnated. I would remember, have flashes or visions or something.
“Why doesn’t Maddy believe Lena will come back this time if she always does?”
He played with the steering wheel. “Lena hasn’t shown up for forty years, which means in the last life… she didn’t find me.”
Oh man.
I reached out and took his hand in mine. “I’msosorry. I am. That’s legit the saddest story I’ve ever heard. But I’m not her. I’m… me. Averly. I don’t remember anything butmylife.”
He chewed his lip. “No dreams? Flashbacks?”
I shook my head and pulled my hand back. “I’m sorry.”
He nodded. “Okay. You should get to work.” His voice sounded hollow.
I stepped out of his truck and then walked into the bar, all the while a pit was in my stomach. The whole Brayden Lena saga really tugged at my heart. She hadn’t shown up for forty years? He’d waited for her the whole time? It was unfathomable to me.
“Hey, Clara.” I stepped behind the bar, still reeling from what Brayden had told me. These Fae Lord douchebags really did a number on him with that curse on his mate.
“Hey, Aver—” Her nostrils flared, eyes flashing purple for a split second. “You were bitten.”
The shock of her words stopped me in my tracks and I inhaled her scent into my nostrils. Smoke, incense and… earth. “What?” I laughed nervously, covering my arm where the bite used to be.
This was my first time back to work since my change. Clara couldn’t tell what I was, right?
Did I imagine the purple eyes? She was talking about the wolf bite from the other night. No big deal.
She looked me up and down, shaking her head. “You smell like a werewolf. Was it that guy from the other night? Brayden?”
