Page 45 of Their Fated Magic

“What would happen if I decided I didn’t want you? That I was going to leave with Garrick and never see any of you again?”

It’s like the air has been sucked away from us. The look on their faces is absolutely shattered. Rinan actually turns and staggers until he gets to a point in the hot spring where he can collapse to his knees. Their emotions – heartbroken, shattered to their core – wash over me, and it’s like I can’t breathe.

“We’d accept what you want,” Arlys chokes out.

“We would let you go,” Drogo says, but then continues, “And we would never love again. Never take a partner. Never have children. And we’d deserve it, because we were horrible to you, to our mate.”

I stare, then wrap my arms around myself. Turning my back to them, I stare out at the forest, feeling as broken as they feel. I know they deserve my wrath, but I also know that to punish them would be to punish myself.

“Fuck,” Rinan murmurs, and he’s suddenly closer to me. “What happened to your back?”

I consider lying, but then just decide to be truthful. “It was my mother. But metal rods and whips never made me into the daughter she always wanted. No matter what, I wasn’t a very good witch. No matter how isolated she made me, no matter how much the other witches hated me, I was always me.” A little laugh explodes from my lips. “If you guys think you don’t like me, you have nothing on my mother.”

There’s silence, and then they’re around me, big, towering shifters. Their bodies form walls of muscle that surround me. I see it on their faces. Something else has changed. Something I don’t understand.

Drogo reaches beneath my chin and tilts my head up, so I have to look into his dark eyes. “One day, we’re going to kill your mother for hurting you.”

I shiver.

Rinan’s voice is softer, but full of fury. “I’m so angry. Angry at your people, and angry at myself for treating you the way we did. You’ve had a rough life. All you deserve is gentleness and kindness, and we only managed to be as cruel as the people that hurt you.”

It’s hard to see them like this. “You were nicer than my people.”

Drogo swears. “I’m never going to forgive myself for what an asshole I was to you. Never. But I am going to spend the rest of our lives making it up to you.”

His hand drops. I look between them. “You hurt me.”

Their shoulders bow.

“I’m not ready to forgive you yet.”

I think it would’ve been kinder to hit them.

“But…” I draw out the word, my own thoughts spinning. “I don’t want a future without you either.”

Arlys’ brilliant green eyes meet mine. “Do you mean…?”

I nod. “I’ll give you guys a chance to show me you deserve me.”

Drogo makes a sound that’s almost a squeal and grabs me and picks me up, spinning me in the water. Before I know it, I’m laughing, spreading my arms out, feeling like a bird whose broken wings have been finally fixed. Like I can fly for the first time.

He stops, and I slide down his body. My nipples harden. My body seems to curl against his, and his eyes widen and darken.

“Tara, you should get away from us. We’ve wanted you for so long. We might not be able to control ourselves,” Drogo says, his words breathless, his hands tight on my hips.

I stay pressed against him, warring with my mind and body. He’s not the only one who’s been left wanting for a long time. When I picture myself with them, I don’t see it like I once did, like a pretzel being twisted in different directions. I see it as something hot. Something soul-consuming. Something I know will happen eventually. So I’m struggling to see a reason to wait.

“You don’t deserve me,” I whisper.

He shakes his head. “We don’t.”

I lean up. Our lips are almost touching, his hot breath on my lips. “Maybe you can start working to deserve me now.”

His grip on my hips tightened even harder. “Are you saying…?”

I nod.

And then his lips are on mine, all consuming. As hot as his anger and passion all rolled into one. And I’m left spinning in it, like a person caught in a current. Only, he’s turning me on, making me burn.

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