Page 152 of The Broken Aztec Princesses

“I’m in charge of your safety,” Chris countered.

“You were fired from that job, big guy.” Violet crossed her arms, knowing she had that argument won.

I did my best not to chuckle. In the month I’d been here, I’d seen her coming out of her shell little by little. If I thought I liked her when I first met her, it was nothing to what I felt for her now.

But, she was in love with Chris. It was clear as day and I didn’t push, because I could see Chris was a good guy who would treat her well, though he did seem a little bit of a grump.

When they broke up, I thought for one glorious day I might have a chance, but it didn’t take me long to realize their breakup was a mistake. In a lot of ways, Chris reminded me of my father.

Mom was the vampire queen for a while. Then, my biological father was killed and the vampire community thought she, too, was killed while pregnant with me. At the time, Mom had been working with Dad to find the person who framed her for my grandfather’s murder. He was just a normal guard, trained by my grandfather, the man who also trained Aunt Kassie, but he wasn’t anyone important.

When everything went down, Dad followed Mom underground to protect us. We lived in Canada because the nights were long in the winter, and that far north, it was winter for a long time. It was also not highly populated, so her identity was safe.

I still remember to this day how it was growing up. Mom accepted Dad long before Dad allowed himself to love her like he wanted to. He didn’t think he was a person worthy of a queen.He thought she deserved better and fought against his feelings for years, causing both of them to hurt unnecessarily.

Experiencing that growing up turned out to be my downfall when I got here, and I saw the same thing happening between Violet and Chris.

Anyone could see they were in love with each other, and it was boggling to me at first why Chris would give her up so quickly. When Violet explained, though, I saw Dad’s actions reflected in everything Chris did and I knew I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t try to get in the middle of them, because if Chris loved Violet even a tenth of how much Dad loved Mom, Violet was a lucky woman.

I never planned to meddle, but every night, I watched Chris following Violet, making sure she was safe even though it wasn’t his job anymore. When Violet was still miserable after two weeks, I thought a little bit of jealousy would do the trick. That’s all I had planned to do.

But then I saw the fight leave Chris as he waited for the demon dog to kill him and I had to step in. I had to make him see reason before Violet lost him. I knew once he accepted that the only thing that mattered was that they loved each other, things would be fine.

Not feeling like he didn’t deserve her, wasn’t really a bad thing in a relationship that wasn’t blessed by the Moon Goddess. I saw it every day with Mom and Dad. No one worked harder to earn his place at Mom’s side than Dad, and no one loved him more for it than Mom. It would be the same with them. No one was going to work or love Violet harder than Chris.

It wasn’t a disproportionate love as one might think of that kind of dynamic. Mom reciprocated all of Dad’s efforts to show her how much he loved her by doing the same. The kind of woman Violet was, I knew it would be similar with them.

So, I didn’t regret helping Violet and Chris the way I did because of the example I had grown up with at home. I knew itwas the right move, but I can’t say it left me feeling all warm and fuzzy inside.

It did hurt. I had never been one to believe in love at first sight, but I felt that with Violet. That was why I’d been so sure she might be my mate. I still believed there was someone out there for me, but for right now, I was allowing myself a little bit of an internal pity party whenever I saw them together.

I was happy for them, but I also wasn’t a saint. I liked Chris, but I was enjoying seeing him as speechless as he was in this moment. Violet wasn’t as meek as I thought she was when I first met her, and good for her. She would make Chris earn every gray hair he got from trying to keep her safe, and I was going to enjoy watching any of those moments that I could.

“Violet, come on. You know you’re not ready for that,” Chris tried to appeal to her common sense.

“You said ‘anyone can be a warrior.’”

I laughed at the spot-on imitation she did of Chris, calling her attention to me.

“Will you tell him I can help?” she asked.

“I don’t think it’s wise, Violet. You haven’t done a lot of cardio and you broke your leg a few weeks ago. What happens if this thing catches you?”

Chris looked smug behind Violet’s back while she was busy glaring at me.

“I have my shield,” she challenged.

“Can you put your shield down faster than the demon dog can run? That thing is faster than I am. There’s a reason I had to call for backup.”

“Bells, tell them!” Violet seethed, looking behind me.

“Tell them what?” Luna Bells asked as she continued down the stairs until she was standing behind me.

“I want to help and they’re being bullies,” Violet huffed, crossing her arms.

“Violet, we just want to keep you safe.” Chris sighed from behind her.

“And I want to help.”

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