Page 43 of The Blood Widow

Cole dropped the phone and stomped over to me. I vaguely registered Ezra picking it up, my eyes couldn’t leave Cole’s furious gaze. They were the only thing that mattered.

Yes. Be mad. Run away. Please don’t die because of me.I chanted this in my mind over and over. Desperate for it to end.

He gripped my face with strong hands, squeezing me. “You pushed me away to save me? You fucking love me and walked away?” He squeezed harder like he could squeeze some sense into me. “You let me hate you.” The grip on me tightened. “Why?”

His face was lined with pain and a dash of hope. I wouldn’t lie to him anymore. “At least you’d be alive. Nothing else mattered.”

Cole slammed his lips onto mine. He wasn’t gentle. He demanded entry. Sparks exploded in my vision. His hands went to my hair and pulled at the strands, tilting my head up. I gladly let him use me. I didn’t know if this would change anything. I would still fight for him to leave me, but I needed this just as much as he did.

“What did the seer say exactly?” Ezra asked Bell. His words pulled me from my lustful haze.

Cole just moved his mouth down to my neck. He knew me all too well. He knew my mind hadn’t changed on the matter and he was taking advantage of our closeness. Being sandwiched between these two men was fucking with my mind. I couldn’t think correctly.

“Any man that stands at her side will die.” I flinched at her words. Cole nipped my ear while Dominic’s hands massaged my hips. They were not helping clear my mind. If anything, a lustful red hue was sprouting at the edges of my vision.

“Man? Are you sure they said man.”

Both guys froze as they listened to the conversation more intently. Ezra eyes were on Dominic like they were communicating somehow.

“I wrote it down and, yes, it says man.” The smile in her tone worried me.

“Then, if more than one man stood at her side, they wouldn’t die?”

My eyes widened and locked onto Ezra’s. I gulped as Bell answered.

“I’m not sure, possibly. I can get my seers to look harder into it, but I don’t know if they can go that deep into Novem’s life. Their only connection to her is me.” And seer magic worked best if there was a connection.

“Please try.” Then he hung up.

The look on his face said it all.

I shook my head. “No. You won’t put yourselves at risk like that.”

“It’s not your decision to make, sweetcakes.” Dominic said in my ear.

I pulled away from them, and they let me go.

“I didn’t fight so god damn hard to keep Cole away to have you ruin it.”

Cole growled, but I ignored him. One ghoul would be easy to keep away. Cole always respected my wishes, but these men as a unit wouldn’t. They were too dominant. Too determined. “I don’t want you to get hurt either. Getting close to me could be a death sentence.”

When they didn’t say anything, just looked at me like I was stupid, I panicked. My eyes met Lauren’s. “What about Lauren? I know there’s a connection there.”

“Ew. No.”

I tilted my head in surprise. My forehead crinkled. “What? I?—”

“Ezra is my dad. These guys are my uncles. Whatever you thought you saw was a family connection.” Her words sucked out all the air from my lungs.

Rose. She was wearing a disguise too. Well, fuck.

This was too much. Without saying anything else, I called on my portal and it arrived faster than usual.

“Novem don’t,” Cole said while Dominic and Ezra tried to grab me.

I was already gone, though. Saying the spell to keep them from tracking and following me.

I was so fucking screwed. They wouldn’t stop. If their faces were true, they yearned for me the same way I did for them. Yet, the real question that held me back was if that yearning would be their deaths.

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