Page 86 of The Gamma's Second Chance

I swallow and press my forehead to hers, squeezing my eyes shut as I rip open my wounds and place my heart in her hands. “You know I’ve been hurt before, Cassandra. My mate—the one who was supposed to love me and be my better half—left me broken and bruised, and Rachel… Well, I realize now that I was clinging to something I’d built up in my mind rather than something real. But—”

“I’m not like them,” she says, caressing my cheek. “I won’t hurt you or abandon you.”

“Maybe not intentionally.” I lean back and stare into her eyes. “But if you find your mate, or if you choose to be a true oracle, choose to wait to be marked by your fated mate over being marked by me as a chosen mate…” I shake my head and clench my fists. “I don’t know if I can survive that.”

Understanding lights up her features, her eyes darting between mine. A gentle smile curves her lips, and she gazes at the ring again, angling it so it catches the soft moonlight spilling into the room. “No bond of fate draws her soul to another.”

She utters the words slowly and precisely, enunciating each with clear diction, like she’s reciting a poem or a proverb. But if it’s something I’m supposed to recognize or something that’s supposed to enlighten me, it fails to do so.

“What?” I ask.

She backs away from me and strolls across the room to the window, staring at the ring the entire time. “Do you know why I was the acolyte sent to Crescent Lake?”

I follow and stand behind her, my arms crossed and my brow furrowing in confusion. “Wesley said you were the only one they could send.”

She nods. “That’s correct. But did you ever wonderwhyI was the only one?”

I shrug. “I hadn’t given it much thought.”

“They needed to send someone who wasn’t tied to the island, someone who could stay in Crescent Lake for as long as Haven and Wesley needed them around.”

Something clicks in my brain, something that hadn’t occurred to me until she began this line of questioning. “They weren’t worried you’d find your fated mate?”

She shakes her head as she turns to face me, the ring box clutched to her chest. “No. They were not.”

“Why not?”

She’s quiet for longer than I like, her fingers still trembling and her lip quivering. “Because I don’t have a fated mate.”

I shake my head, even though I hear, feel, and see the conviction behind her words.

That’s not possible. Selene creates a mate bond for all of us.

“How do you know that?” I ask.

She draws a deep breath in through her nose, preparing herself and gathering strength. “When an oracle is born, it is customary for the high oracle to do a reading. ‘No bond of fate draws her soul to another.’ That was my reading. My future. My fate.”

I stare at her, still confused, not fully understanding what she means or what she’s telling me. “A reading? Like a palm reading?”

“It is like that in a way, I suppose,” she says, tilting her head side to side. “There is a ceremony, and the high oracle sees the path of your soul. She doesn’t see everything, but she sees enough. She sees the important pieces.”

My arms drop to my sides, and my fingers twitch, itching to reach for her as comprehension dawns on me. “And that’s what she saw for you? No bond… drawing you to another? No mate bond?”

She nods and stares down at the ring in her hands, her lips pinched together and her eyes glassy. Then she laughs a little, a dry, sardonic sound reminiscent of the sarcastic, humorless laughs I give so often.

“That was a very long-winded and roundabout way to say you don’t need to worry about me finding my fated mate or wanting to wait for him so I can be a true oracle. There is no one out there meant for me. I will never be a true oracle. I’ve always known that.” She gazes up at me, hands me the ring box, and backs away, leaving a sizable gap between us. “So ask me, Nolan,” she says once more.

She stares at me with sheer conviction and complete vulnerability. She places her heart in my hands, the same way I’ve placed mine in hers. We’re two broken souls that fit together seamlessly, two fractured hearts that finally found the one who can heal them. We were both lost, wandering a forest of failed attempts, ruined dreams, and shattered promises, but we overcame the obstacles and the fear and made our way to each other.

We may not have a bond, but somehow, it still feels like fate.

The sparkling starlight frames her, setting her mauve dress aglow and highlighting the innate beauty and joy radiating from within her. Her confidence is unfaltering, a mirror image of the confidence in me, the confidence I felt last night and should have clung to all day instead of letting my fear get the best of me.

I drop to my knee, gazing up at the goddess before me, the female to whom my heart belongs. She’s owned it since the first smile she flashed my way, when I was too hurt to realize what I felt towards her wasn’t annoyance but the connection I’d beensearching for all along. Her lower lip quivers, but she holds her smile, lifting her chin higher as she waits for me to speak.

“I love you, Cassandra,” I say, my voice thick with emotion as I open the box and extend it in front of me. “I don’t need a mate bond to know you’re my true second chance mate and my first real chance at happiness. So be mine, Daisy. Fill my life with your smiles, my home with your flowers, and my heart with your sunshine. Play my piano and eat my potato chips and rearrange my furniture. Put your name on my soul like you put your name on my front door.”

Her smile grows as I speak, and by the end, she’s bouncing with excitement, her hands clasped beneath her chin. The last word leaves my mouth, and she darts forward with a laughing sob, throwing herself into my arms. I catch her as our lips meet, and she knocks me backwards, the ring box tumbling out of my hand as I brace myself against the floor to cushion my fall, both of us smiling as we kiss.

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