Page 135 of The Broken Aztec Princesses

My heart sank to the ground.

“I’m sorry.”

“You already apologized the day you broke up with me. If that’s all, I’d like to finish cleaning in silence.”

Fuck. This wasn’t what I hoped would happen. Hell, apparently it wasn’t what Elim hoped would happen, either. But, I couldn’t give her up just like that again. If I wanted a chance, I needed to prove to her that I loved her, and I wouldn’t just walk out the first time someone said something to me. The only way I was walking away was if she said she didn’t want me anymore; if she told me she had already moved on.

“Violet, please, hear me out,” I begged, feeling my voice crack with fear that I’d really lost her.

She stopped. She stood with her back to me for a while before she shook her head, and finally turned around. Fuck if my heart didn’t break to see the tears in her eyes.

“I love you,” I blurted out.

Her eyes widened, but then she scoffed and angrily wiped a tear falling from her face.

“If that’s what you do when you love someone, I hope you never hate me.”

Okay, I deserved that.

“Please—”

“Please, what, Chris?” she snapped. “What the heck do you want from me? Do you think I’ll tell people what you did, and it reflects badly on Crescent Moon or your parents? Don’t worry. I’ve sworn anyone that knew about us to secrecy. Do you want me to forgive you so you don’t feel guilty? There’s nothing to forgive. I’m the one who practically forced you to kiss me in the first place, and basically bullied you into giving me a chance. I’m the one who’s sorry, so you can stop feeling guilty.”

Bully me? Did she not know how many times I’d dreamed of those kisses? But, I didn’t get a chance to correct her, though, because my fierce, tiny warrior wasn’t done speaking.

“You can stop sleeping in front of my door, and sitting outside the luna office, and stop watching to make sure I’m safe through the window of the training arena, and in that tree by the daycare.”

My eyes widened, and I felt heat coming to my face. I thought I was pretty sneaky.

“I have survived a lot in the last year. So, don’t worry about me. I’ll survive you, too,” she finished angrily, but the quiver in her lip gave me a tiny bit of hope to hang onto.

“I don’t want you to survive me. I want to be with you, Violet,” I told her quietly, begging her with my eyes to believe me.

“Because Elim tricked you into being jealous? No thanks. I don’t need any more pity kisses, that will just end the moment someone feels like they have a right to an opinion on my life. I have a little bit of fucking dignity left,” Violet snapped, another tear running down her cheek.

Is that the first time Violet cursed?Titan asked me, but I ignored him, even though the thought crossed my mind, too.

“Those weren’t pity kisses. Violet, I love you. I have for a while.” I took a step forward. “But we’re not mates, and I thought maybe you were better off finding your second-chance mate. I thought I was doing what was best for you.” Then, because I knew it wasn’t fair to use her an excuse to hurt her, I added, “And, because I was a coward, afraid of getting my heart broken if you ever left me.”

Violet shook her head, anger filling her eyes again, telling me what she thought of my reasoning.

“You don’t get to decide what’s best for me. One person you didn’t even know said something disapproving, and that mattered more to you than what I thought. It mattered more toyou than what I felt. You didn’t listen to my responses to what she said, you didn’t let me talk when you broke up with me. You said your piece, and you walked away. Why should I believe you now? Why should I believe the same thing isn’t going to happen when the next person judges what we have? Or the one after that?” she challenged.

“Because I can’t live without you—” she scoffed again, but I kept going. “—Because, I finally realized I’m selfish enough to want to keep you for myself. I need your light, Violet. I need your love more than I need anyone’s approval. I need you more than I need air to breathe. I don’t care who I have to fight to be with you. I don’t care who thinks badly of me for wanting you. I don’t care if you or I have a second-chance mate out there. I don’t fucking care if someone deserves you more than I do. No one, not even a second-chance mate, will love you as much as I love you. I will reject any person the Goddess chooses for me, because I will always choose you.” I stalked forward, stopping just before her and dropping to my knees.

“Choose me, Violet. I’ll beg you every day for the rest of my life if I need to. You’re all I want. You’re the only person who makes me happy. You’re it for me and Titan. We choose you.”

Violet didn’t respond, and I continued to wait for her as I watched more tears falling from her eyes. I couldn’t figure out what she was thinking, and my heart sank when minutes passed by in silence. I reached for her hand, ready to continue pleading my case. When my hand made contact with hers, Violet let out a sob. I brought her hand to my lips, kissing it before clasping it in both of mine.

“Choose me one more time, Violet, and I promise I will never let you go. I’ll wake up every morning and ask you to choose me for one more day. Every day, I’ll prove to you how much I love you, so you can choose me again the next day. I will fight alongside you, for you and against everyone, every day fromtoday forward, because I already know how it feels to lose you. Please... choose me.”

I was putting my heart in the palm of her hands, and waiting for her to crush it or give it life again. I closed my eyes when she reached out with her free hand, and wiped the tears that slipped from my eyes as I told her what she meant to me.

“If you break my heart again, I’ll sic all my family on you,” Violet finally whispered.

I opened my eyes and looked up at her, hope blooming in my chest like a flower that hadn’t seen the sun in way too long, and was now feeling its warmth again.

"They can’t do anything to me that would be more painful, than the last two weeks of thinking I’d lost you and knowing it was my own doing,” I assured her.

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