Chapter 6 #2
“Yeah. I’m good. I’ll be right out,” I promise. I can’t do anything about the situation my face is in, so I release Vero and rush to the sink to wash it. I’ll find a makeup store later to try to fix it before I get home.
“What’s with him?” Vero breathes, staring at the door. “He’s going to be important to you, Rosa. I don’t know how I know, I just do. Maybe he can protect you better than I can…”
Half blind from the water I’m blinking away, I reach for paper towels to mop away the makeup on my face. That’s the last fucking time I skip the setting powder. My spray is bullshit against tears.
“What are you talking about?” I ask, finally getting my sight back.
“You can’t be with me, and I’m a failure as your alpha. It’s all I could think about, Rosa, while I was locked in that fucking crawl space. I’m the reason why… Holy shit, your face! What did that monster do to you?!”
The bruises. Ugh.
“Rosa!” Nico yells, making me wince. Shit on a cracker with peanut butter crumble…
“I need a goddamned second, Nicolai!” I yell back, stomping my foot.
“One second.” It’s growled out, making me shudder as my chest heaves and I push my hair out of my face.
“Papa punished me, Vero. He almost lit me on fire when he called me into his office. He’s not right in the head, and he proved he’s never really loved me that day.
If he’ll do this to me, then I’m truly afraid of what he’d do to you if he found you.
Please,” I hiss. “You’re not a failure, destiny is just telling us our story isn’t meant to be.
Not right now, and I don’t know if we ever will be. ”
We haven’t bitten each other yet, and it feels as if I’m rejecting her as I begin to cry again. God, it feels as if I’m having a heart attack and a stroke at the same fucking time!
“No. You do not get to do this to me. To us,” Vero hisses, flicking the lock of the bathroom door closed. “I will accept that you have to marry this cretin and even that you might have to fuck him. I can accept you’ll probably need to have his babies too.”
My alpha, the love of my whole damn life, stalks toward me and pushes me gently against the wall so she won’t hurt me. I leave my arms by my sides, because there’s not a reality where I’ll ever defend myself against her. I’m hers completely, even when Fate says it’s wrong or not our time yet.
“But?” My voice cracks as I gaze into her beautiful face. She’s fucking ethereal in her anger. I can barely hear Nico losing his shit outside over the roar in my mind that says I’m about to be in deep fucking shit.
Verona wraps her fingers loosely around my throat, examining how they look against my skin before they move to shift my dress off my shoulders, over my breasts, and rubs her thumbs over my nipples through the mesh of my bra.
I’ve never been so happy this corset stops underneath my bust before. Whimpering, I perfume for her, the only alpha I’ve ever responded to and her lips twist in triumph.
“I will not allow you to cast me aside or reject us,” she growls. There is no fanfare, no kiss, because we don’t fucking have time for it.
Shoving the cup of my bra up, she exposes me to the cool, air-conditioned air. Vero lifts my right breast next, squeezing it so hard my eyes cross before she bites down on its tender underside.
My arms wrap around her now as I hold her, my head dropping back on the wall as I clamp my lips shut against both the pain and pleasure of that bite. The bond snaps into place immediately, and the wave of love that hits me almost makes me black out.
As her head lifts, she wraps her arm tighter around my waist to keep me upright as my knees buckle, and that’s when she slams her lips against mine.
She says things neither of us can say out loud through the bond, while I whisper over and over how sorry I am that things can’t be different.
I can taste the salt of both our tears on our lips, and it reminds me of what she said about my sadness.
“One day, the air won’t taste like salt anymore,” she whispers. “This is not goodbye. It’s simply till next time. Even if it’s in another life.”
I feel frozen as the door splinters beside us and Vero quickly replaces my clothing before turning and running for the window directly across from us. She leaps for it as she pushes it out, and wiggles her lithe body through the window.
Holy hell.
“Rosa.”
Swallowing hard, I shift my eyes to Nico who is standing in front of me with the ruined door exhibiting an alpha sized hole inside of it.
“I can’t…”
Crumpling to the floor, I begin to cry earth shattering tears. Nico sighs, sitting on the floor next to me. He drags me into his lap, burying his nose into my neck before he freezes.
“We are so fucked, aren’t we, principessa?”
I can’t say a word as he hugs me with just the right amount of pressure, growling for anyone who comes near us to get the fuck out. I don’t care if they call the authorities on us. For one moment in time, someone other than Vero is in my corner while I mourn the fact that I may never see her again.
Her scent will start to infiltrate mine, and I have a feeling Nico can already tell. It’s a good thing no one else is typically near enough to notice the change, which means I may just get out of this alive.
Be well, Verona. I love you so much.
Somehow gelato no longer seems important, but it still managed to change my life.