Page 77 of Little Mate

Throwing my head back, I let out a deafening roar that shakes the ground we stand on. A few windows shatter, and those around me whimper and cower in fear while I crumble as her man.

“Is there anything we can do?” I ask Meera, the sound of my voice sounding foreign. Lifeless.

“I can bind her here; she showed me how to in the past.”

“But…” I pull Gabriella a little tighter against me, my face buried against my mark—the first tattoo came in the day our mind-link slid into place. Kissing it with reverence because she’ll always be my gift. Mine.

“I can’t predict when she’d be back. Her soul will belong to this world, but not her body until death decides otherwise.” I can smell Meera’s tears, and if I could, I’d be bawling like a child myself. My heart feels broken, although it doesn’t beat. My soul feels ruptured, and existing in a world where she no longer walks isn’t something I can do. We either walk side by side, or leave this life together. My world has been in her pretty little hands since the day we met.“I’m so sorry, My king. Only she can take and give life.”

My face snaps to hers, my chest heaving harshly as the beast within rattles the cage and thirst, for vengeance. To kill. “Do it.” Standing from the ground, I lay my beauty down and then place a tiny kiss across the cupid’s bow of her lips. “Do whatever you must. No matter the cost.”

Seventy-two hours pass, and the sun never rises.

It’s total darkness, and my vampires sob for their fallen queen. No matter how little time she had with us, those who are loyal to the crown came to love her as I do.

Her beauty. Her heart.

She is the purest and most beautiful soul.

“It’s time, my king.” Tero places a hand on my arm and I nod, walking behind him to the tribute made by the elders in her honor. We know a minute tendril of her soul lingers—she’ll mostly reside where my father does—and yet those here will continue to sense Gabriella.

I can still smell her. Taste her in the air around me.

But the pain is just the same when you can’t hug or kiss the one you love.

Is this what you lived with, pretty girl—this agonizing hollowness that never ceases the torture?

All who I pass bow their heads, their sobs echoing across the land. The cadence is full of pain, a mere tenth of what I’m choking on, but comfort is out of my reach.

Nothing will ever make this better than having her again, a hope I’m clinging to.

Her family is here, yet I refuse to speak to any of them.

Gabriella went above the line of loyalty for them. She defended and loved, yet Isabella’s avoidance after the meeting with Larue cut my wife deep. She wouldn’t say it, but I saw it in her eyes each time she’d fail to connect with her sister.

It was there when her uncle explained his reasons for abandoning them.

When Marcia got hurt, and she nearly killed herself to save a friend.

Every time she gave it was honest and pure, yet life didn’t always reciprocate in kindness.

That’s why I ignore everyone and slip inside the coffin with my mate before the casket is lowered. They will not be taking her body back to the Moore’s mausoleum; she will remain where I can see her, talk to her—care for the place she rests while her body and spirit recharge to come back.

Today. A week. Years from now.

Doesn’t matter, I will wait for my queen to rise once more.

The dirt covers her coffin, and soon the cries of many turn to muffled noises that I pay no heed to. And the longer we lay there—the longer I go without feeding—I find my quiet. Brodej and Tero will step in and take care of any coven needs while I visit someone who owes me.

Hunger gives way to madness, my grief and needs too strong to contain, but I do.

I bring myself to death’s door to be by the side of my queen as my father calls her back.

Her spirit has been waiting for me, and when I awake to a hand in mine, it’s her face that greets me with a smile. “Hi.”

“Hello, pretty girl.”

“You’re handsome. Has anyone ever told you that?”

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