Page 941 of One More Kiss
“Did any of you consider that if you explained your story to me, then maybe I would have agreed? That maybe I would have considered helping you end this curse, and then end mine? But no, you stalked me, knocked me out twice, and then took my life. Turned me into this. And now you’re saying the only way to fix part of this is to… mate with you?” I question in disgust. I can’t believe this is happening.
“After you freaked out and started talking about the nightmares, we thought we couldn’t talk you down. We thought you wouldn’t listen to reason. Better to apologize than ask for permission,” Theron says.
His expression is honest. They needed to have this curse broken, and there was nothing that would have stopped them.
The hunger that I’ve been feeling these past weeks has given me a peek at what they had to deal with for so long. I drain the rest of my glass of blood and coffee, and I want more, much more. It’s always there, hovering under the surface, — the hunger. It’s making me nuts. What would I do to get rid of it? What would I agree to do?
A silence falls over us like a shroud. Thoughts ping in my head about what the next step is. I’ve tried to run away and be free of them. That almost had me draining a guy on the street. I can’t take this lust anymore. The need is never quenched. I wonder what it would be like to… no, I can’t think of that. Or maybe I should. Maybe I should consider what they are offering. It’s not like I have to stay forever. It’s sex — with all three men.
My cheeks blush as scenes pass through my mind. It wouldn’t be the worst thing. I could still hate them. I’d be cured and eventually freed.
“Ok, I’ll do it. Make me your mate.”
“It’s not as simple as that,” Theron says, folding himself further into the couch. “We’d have to have sex. Group sex.”
The blush never leaves my cheeks, but there’s no other way. I can’t live like this. Being mated doesn’t sound so bad. Maybe I can have sex, even if it would be the fantasy of my dreams, and then leave. Once the blood curse is broken, we can all go our separate ways.
“I can hear you thinking,” Draven says, getting up from his spot on the couch and joining me on the bench.
I make room for him, but evade his touch. I don’t need to start this mating right now.
“And what do you think I’m thinking?”
I try to hold on to whatever sass I have because this is slowly slipping from my control. As if I had any to begin with. Everything since the moment I met them has been about them gaining all of me while I got nothing in return.
“You can’t leave us. Once the mating has taken place, you’ll never want to be without us. All this anger you’re feeling will leave and we will make a connection like no other. It’s deeper than marriage. It’s eternal.”
His eyes flash with something, but I don’t stick around to figure it out. “I don’t want you three. Can’t you understand that? You killed me the moment you sank your fangs into me. Turned me into the same monster you’ve been trying to get away from for centuries. Now you're asking me to what… love you?”
The audacity of it makes my blood boil. I’ve seen this type of gaslighting from the women that come into the office. The man will say anything to get them to stay and then hurt them over and over. Not me, never.
“Love is a tough concept,” Julius says.
I laugh before he can continue. “Tough? No, what’s difficult is being tied to three fucking liars for the rest of this shitty existence. Even now you’re not trying to see my side of things. You’re concerned about your lives. I wonder how this makes you any different from the woman who cursed you?”
I leave the room going down to the gym. I need to punch something, and as much as I want it to be one of them, I need my space. The treadmill and the punching bag are calling my name.
* * *
Theron
“That went to shit,” I say, watching Odessa walk away. I don’t blame her. Now that the blood lust is gone, it’s easier to identify with others’ emotions.
“We’re not here to romance her. She does this and we can be free. If she wants to leave, it will be difficult, but there’s nothing we can do to keep her. We’ll know that she’s safe, and that the rest of the world won’t die from a vampire with blood lust,” Draven says.
Draven has always been the warrior. Out of the three of us, his past is riddled with blood before he was turned. His story is the saddest, while Julius and I chose this life.
“It’s not as simple as that, and you know it. We’ll be connected and the urge to be together will be another kind of torture. Having a mate, all three of us can share. It’s not a bond that can be ignored,” Julius says, sitting on the couch next to me.
Draven paces back and forth, a furrow in his brows. I know how he’s feeling, it’s the same thing I’m broadcasting on my face - pain and worry. He might be the tough guy, but having a home and a family is everything to him.
“I think we do the mating and then prove to her we can be there for her in every way. It’s a long shot, but the bond might help her get over the need to kill us at every moment. She’ll lose the anger from the blood lust,” I suggest.
“We have to try,” Julius says. “There’s so much riding on this. What if ‘you-know-who’ finds out about her? Mating bonds are sacred. If she’s not a part of our coven, there’s a chance she’ll be killed.”
“Fuck… I didn’t think of that,” Draven says. “We will do it tomorrow. Julius, you do the fancy shit you do for the women and I’ll stay out of the way until it’s over. I may have been the one who brought her back, but she hates me the most.”
Julius nods, leaving the room. I follow Draven’s pacing before I can’t take it anymore. “Sit down. You’re making me dizzy.”
