Page 119 of Hate Me

They’d found me.

They’d brought me back.

And I wasn’t going anywhere ever again.

I’d started to feel it back then and it was even stronger now without all my barriers in the way with me trying to keep it at bay because of my fear of losing myself if I’d let it all in.

But I wasn’t afraid anymore.

And with everything that had happened, it had become clear that letting them in wouldn’t result in me losing myself or power. In fact, it was the opposite. We were stronger when the four of us were together. We fit together in a perfectly imperfect way.

This was where I belonged.

The words left me, free and unencumbered. Raw and honest. “I love you. I love you all.”

I felt the three of them freeze as my confession floated out there.

Then Caspian’s voice cut through the stunned silence, “We love you, too.”

“Damn straight, we do,” Caleb said, nuzzling my shoulder.

I lifted my head a little to look out at Bastian.

Those hellfire eyes of his were aflame.

But not in that usual dangerous way.

No, this time it was different. Deeper.

Absolutely mesmerizing.

His next words were beyond even that as he confessed, “I fell in love with you two years ago, beautiful. I even tried to kill it while you were gone, masking it with hatred and enforced distance and distraction, but it didn’t work. Nothing ever will. It’s too fucking strong. And I don’t want it to anymore. I never want to stop loving you. And I won’t. I can’t. You’re here with us now and that’s it, no more going anywhere.”

I smiled and grasped his nape, holding him tightly to me, his beautiful words infusing me. “I’m here to stay, Bastian. I’m here to stay with you all.”

24

~Sebastian~

The last few days had been incredible.

That night of the forest fuck took top billing, though.

And not the actual twisted, out-of-control fucking that had basically put everything out there between us that we’d all been keeping at bay.

It was Skylar’s incredible confession that had risen above all the rest.

Her words were imprinted on my brain.

And I just knew they always would be.

“I love you. I love you all.”

“I’m here to stay with you all.”

That moment when she’d let go with us would live within me forever.

Being forced away from us for so long had made her realize what I already had two years back—that what we had between us was special, a once-in-a-lifetime kind of connection. And one that could never fucking die either.

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