Sweet Trouble
I am not who I was ~ Chance Peña
Adea
I’m not marking you, Princess.
I’m not marking you.
I’m not.
Shane’s words pierce through my chest. Each word is a makeshift sword slicing through flesh. Tearing at skin, breaking through bone until, finally, my heart splinters and cracks. Not right down the middle, no. It’s riddled with deep gashes as everything I came to know as true in the last few hours shatters. The man in front of me stares down at me as if what he’s said makes absolute sense. It doesn’t.
Despite the past that just moments ago he swore we shared, the future where we’re together, and the time we’ve spent, somehow wasn’t enough for him to see what I see so clearly: we’re meant to be together. Maybe he didn’t see me as his forever person. No, I know the truth. The change in him, the glimpse into his soul, has shown me he loves me. Maximus loves me.
I shook my head and withdrew from his grip, but he held tight. I refused to break down and return to how things were before. I wouldn’t be the heartbroken girl who cried over her Goddess-given mate, not wanting her. He would tell me the truth or he’d need to reject me. Lifting my gaze to his, I held it. I needed to hear why.
“You won’t mark me?” I repeated.
Perfect brows furrowed and sad obsidian eyes bore into my soul.
Trouble ~ Camylio
Shane
My fingers trembled around her hands. My Queen stared into the gateway that couldn’t hide the darkness within. I almost want to smile at the fire glaring defiantly up at me. She doesn’t know. How could she? This life and everyone before it were a blank canvas. The Goddess held the paintbrush. We were nothing but her play things. I wanted her, and only her. Of course, I wanted to sink my canines into her pretty little neck and claim her so that everyone who saw her would know she was mine.
The one thing we’re told to want, to need, and I won’t give it to her. I will never mark her. Nothing she says or does will ever make me. From what I can tell, she took the idea of past lives well, but telling her I’m going to die by her hand? I’ll never tell her. Unlike in my dreams where she chooses me, I mark her, and everything somehow magically works out with Ethan’s blood on my hands… I know better. Us? Ruling together? That was nothing but a fantasy and this? This isn’t a dream. This is reality. The reality I—we live with. Whether she remembers or not. Every fucking life is the same. Not enough has changed and nothing will change.
The truth remains.
Adea will betray me.
I won’t mark her. Not out of spite. Never that. It doesn’t matter how angry at her I get, how mad I am for her choices, I will always love her. Just because I’ve eliminated Ethan doesn’t mean we can now ride off into the sunset and live happily ever after. I’m no fool. I don’t interrupt her life and uproot everything because I think we’ll end up together. I force myself into her life because all I need is her eyes on me. And it sure as damned doesn’t mean the Goddess won’t throw something else into play. We are doomed.
What I know is the truth. Facts. My canines will never sink into her skin and I will never claim her as mine in the way she craves. No matter how much I itch for the same. No matter how much Maximus whines and claws at the deepest parts of my mind for it. I will never mark her because the truth remains.
At the end of this life… Adea will kill me.
And I… I refuse to share my fate with her.
When it comes time for me to die.
She will too.
And I’ll never have a hand in her death.
Chocolate brown eyes blink, and she tilts her head. Her lips part and my name falls from her mouth like pure sin.
“Shane?”
“Yes, Sweet Trouble?” I murmured.
“Why won’t you mark me?” she huffed.
A smile pulled at one corner of my mouth and I don’t miss the irritation that flashes in her eyes.
“Don’t you get all cute with me! This is serious. You basically just told me you don’t want to be with me.” The reason I breathe pulls her hands from my grasp and crosses her arms in front of her chest. She’s fucking beautiful, but even as I stare at her, I know she won’t let this go.
I have to lie.
Grabbing her by the hips, I pulled her close. Pressing a kiss to her forehead, she makes the cutest growling sound and turns away from me. So I leaned down and nipped at her neck. Her breasts brush against my chest as she arches her back. The beast between my legs stiffens as it lengthens. Her hands slide up and around my neck. Max whined, but I pushed him back until I couldn’t hear him.
“Of course I’ll mark you… one day. I can’t do that just yet, Princess,” I murmured in her ear.
“I… don’t know if I believe you,” she whispered.
That’s my girl.
“Well, that’s your choice,” I said in that way I knew would rile her up.
“You’re such a jerk, Shane,” she murmured as her head dropped to my chest.
“I know,” I sighed.
“You’re not lying to me?” she asked as she tilted her head back and looked me in the eye.
“I promise. I want to mark you more than you want me to mark you,” I breathed. I meant it with every part of me. Every inch of my body, inside and out, belonged to her.
“You will mark me?” Her eyes shifted from one eye to the other as she searched for the truth.
“In every way I can,” I promised.
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