Page 178 of Mama Si's Paradise

Mine—Grey.

Unmistakably Grey. He growled the word after his brothers made their comments, and he still held my hand, so I still utilized his energy. I still focused all my being in my eyes, trying to see what the hell they were talking about—what marks?!

And I saw. A hundred blinks later, I saw Grey and I saw the black veins stretching from his neck and down to his shoulders and chest like webs.Black veinson his pale skin, impossible to miss.

But he wasn’t the only one. All the brothers had them. All of them had veins of black tattooed on their chests and necks, and I didn’t understand what the hell it meant, but some instinct inside me must have, because suddenly I was afraid.

“It’s clear what has happened here,” said Romin after they all bickered for about two minutes that to me felt like two hours. I was burning. My God, I was burning with that same intensity as in the beginning, and they weren’t going to bite me again.

I looked up at Romin, at Emil who had gotten back up on the bed, his face a bloody mess. He had eyes only for Grey, looking at him like he wanted to skin him alive. Valentine was still by my feet, and Tristian and Grey kneeling on my left. None of them looked like they were going to bite me anytime soon, even though they could see just fine how I was breathing, how I wasdying.

“Her blood has chosen all of us,” Tristian said, and the heat in me turned up.

I screamed.

“What does that mean?! That’s never happened before,”Valentine said, looking at me with his brows narrowed, concerned.

“Not in our lifetime, but Father told me about it,” Romin said. “It has happened once that a bride was compatible with all living Evernights.” The way he looked at me right now said he wanted to suck every drop of blood from my body.

“It means she can choose to be with any of us,” he added.

My ears rang.

“Shechooses?” said Emil, just as stunned as I was.

“Yes, she chooses,” Romin said, lowering down until his face filled my vision. “So, choose, bride. You can have one of us, or you can have all. Choose who will put you out of your misery tonight.”

He was pushed off me the next second—Grey.

“Get off her face. She needs to fucking breathe,” he said through gritted teeth.

“We all know whom she’s going to choose. What’s the point of this?” said Tristian, and he sounded more pissed by the second.

“The little brother gets his bride on the first try,” said Emil with a wicked grin, staring at Valentine.

Valentine, who couldn’t look away from Grey.

Grey, who refused to look away from me.

And it started again, that bickering. They were talking rubbish as far as I was concerned, and nobody was biting mestill. Words and threats were thrown around the room, and whenever someone tried to get closer to me, Grey pushed them back.Let her breathe, let her breathe, let her breathe—but I didn’t need to breathe. I needed this fire inside me to be put out.

I pulled at his hand with all my strength. I needed him so much—how could he not see it? The only reason I was still conscious right now was because his fingers were intertwined with mine, and his skin gave me a little bit of a release. So, Itried calling his name, but my jaws wouldn’t work and my vocal cords refused to make a single sound. It was all in vain, I knew it, but I tried to call for him, I tried to tell him, I tried to beg him to please…

Please make it stop, Grey.

Please, please, please…

Maybe I imagined it, but a little voice left my lips a while later.

Maybe I imagined it, but the sudden silence that reigned in the room made me fear I’d gone deaf.

Maybe I’d imagined it, but Grey was finally in front of me, his lips so close, his grey eyes a mirror to his very soul—full. Full of passion and full of need and full of desirefor me.Just as full as I was for him.

“Yes,”I choked because he was going to bite me. He was going to fucking eat me raw, and I couldn’t wait to be empty.

“She made her choice,” someone said—could have been Romin, but I no longer saw anything that wasn’t Grey.

His hands were on me. My bottom lip was between his teeth. He grabbed me and pulled me up, spun me around and put me down again, back to the bed, his body pressed to mine.

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