The Blood Moon Twins
Chapter 122

REMY

"So Draven got away?" I reiterated after Blade finished telling me about how they found us and dealt with the wolfsbane.

"It seems like it." Blade looked down at his hands, and his mood quickly fell.

I wanted to take his hand, but there was a building pressure in my chest, stopping me from touching him. I needed to tell Blade what happened when I was being held against my will. I needed to tell him what happened with Draven, and I was scared. The mere mention of Draven made Blade's anger flare, so when he found out I agreed to kiss him, I was worried he would see me differently.

Blade wasn't obligated to be my mate. I had forgotten about that, since everything had been going so well between us; however, the way Draven had been treating Harper was a harsh reminder of what could happen when mated to a vampire. I was worried the kiss was enough to diminish Blade's feelings for me.

Blade grabbed my hand, intertwining his fingers with mine. "We'll find Draven. He won't stop coming after you. The good news is we seriously weakened his army, so he won't have the strength to come after you any time soon. I'm hoping we can go after him before he is able to rebuild his army."

"It's not that." I had to tell Blade what happened, no matter what the outcome might be. He deserved to know the truth.

I could feel Blade's confusion, but I couldn't look at him. I felt completely ashamed, and the memory of kissing Draven made my stomach twist into knots. I felt nauseous again, but I tried to breathe through it, not wanting to get sick. "Talk to me. I can feel the turmoil. What happened?" Blade tightened his grip, and his worry made me feel guilty.

I just had to get it over with. Hesitating for any longer would only make me feel more anxious. "I kissed Draven." Blade's grip on my hand loosened, and I started to panic. "I didn't want to. He threatened to kill Harper, but he told me he wouldn't hurt her if I gave him something in return. I didn't know what to do. I felt so helpless and weak, and I couldn't let him just kill Harper when there was something I could do to prevent it. I didn't want to kiss him, but I agreed to it. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry."

Recounting the situation made my breathing rate increase. Tears pricked at my eyes again, and pain rang through my chest. I felt like I had committed a crime, and I hated it. I hated myself because of it.

"He forced himself on you?" Blade asked. His jaw was tight, and he let go of my hand to run it through his hair. He was furious, and the look in his eyes scared me. This wasn't the man I fell in love with. This was a darker version of himself, and I could see him sinking deeper into the gloom and fury.

"I'm sorry," I repeated again. It felt like apologizing wasn't enough. Even if I told him I was sorry a thousand times, it wouldn't change the fact that I kissed another man. "I understand if you are mad at me. I'm mad at myself."

"What?" Blade said. His eyes refocused a little. He leaned in closer to me and studied my face.

I stared at Blade, unsure of what to say. I was just trying not to break down crying in front of him.

Blade furrowed his eyebrows together. "I'm not mad at you. Why on earth would I be mad at you?"

I felt his anger, so his response confused me a little. "I kissed another man." Tears spilled out of my eyes when I said the words out loud. "I kissed the man you despise."

"Did you want to kiss him?" Blade asked, hesitating a little.

I shook my head. "No. Of course not. It was horrible." My hands shook the longer we talked about it.

Blade cupped my face so he could wipe the tears from my eyes. "Then you didn't do anything wrong. Draven forced himself on you."

"But I agreed to it," I said, still feeling guilty. Draven gave me a choice, and I picked the option that ended in his mouth on mine.

"Draven made you choose between the life of your friend or kissing him. That's not a choice. He knew it was something you wouldn't say no to. What he did was coercion, and it is in no way your fault." Blade shifted onto the bed so he was sitting more in the center of it. He grabbed my hands and stared at me. There was not a single drop of anger behind his eyes now. There was only worry.

"If I was in a similar situation where I had to kiss another woman or let Harper get killed, would you be mad at me for kissing someone?" Blade asked. He was genuinely trying to make me understand how he felt, and it was working.

"Of course not," I said. Suddenly, the pressure in my chest lifted. "Oh."

"The only one I am mad at is Draven. I wanted to rip his head off before, but now I want to rip him to pieces and set him on fire. He touched the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with. I promise you I am not mad in the slightest. In fact, I'm just worried. I can't imagine how awful that situation was, and I wish I could go back in time and change it." Blade paused to take a breath. "I'm sorry if you thought I was mad at you, and I'm sorry you had to go through that by yourself. I should have been there. Draven should've never been able to get his hands on you."

The pain in his eyes broke my heart. He blamed himself for everything, and his mind was starting to grow dark again. He had lifted me up and stopped me from spiraling, and I wanted to do the same thing for him. I didn't want to lose him to the abyss. I crawled into his lap, and his hands automatically went to my hips as he helped me settle on him. I faced him and loosely wrapped my arms around his neck. "Listen to me. We have to stop blaming ourselves for things that we have no control over. It's hard enough with this prophecy working against us. We don't need to beat ourselves up."

I was still frustrated and scared after how close Draven was taking me away from Blade forever, but I wanted to be a source of light to counterbalance the darkness threatening Blade, even though I could feel my own darkness hovering around the corner. "I know. It's just hard. It feels like we can't catch a break. We still don't know much at all about this stupid prophecy, and we are going to run out of time at this rate. I keep thinking that if I was stronger or smarter, then maybe I could actually make a difference. If I had my magic, maybe I could-"

I pressed my lips against his, stopping his train of thought. "You don't need your magic to contribute to any of this. You are brilliant and strong, and you are enough just as you are, and we'll figure this out together. And if it weren't for you, there would have been more casualties in the fight. You trained our warriors how to fight vampires, and I know you saved several lives because of it, so no more negative self-talk, got it?"

Blade pulled his lips tight. "Okay, but on one condition. I think I will need more kisses from you to convince me to agree to that." He quickly added, "But only if you want to."

"With you, I want all of the kisses," I whispered, closing the distance between us.

-

HARPER

I woke up feeling worn out. Caulder was passed out next to me with his arm draped over my side. I felt a smile creeping onto my lips as I thought about what happened last night. Caulder was officially mine. There was no doubt that he would be mine forever now, and that thought was amazing. He was always surprising me in ways I hadn't expected. Even the dinner last night was unexpected.

I had given up on celebrating my birthday. It had felt so insignificant with Remy going missing. People had died-no one I knew well, but still. I felt like I didn't deserve to celebrate. I was just grateful Remy and I had made it out of there in one piece. Even with all of that, Caulder still managed to pull together a small dinner-not that we had eaten much of it. We had been too distracted and worn out from our repeated activities.

I started to crawl out of the bed, but Caulder only pulled me back against him. "Don't go," he whispered into my back. His voice was gravelly, and he sounded more asleep than awake.

"I'm just going to go to the bathroom. I'll be back in a few minutes," I whispered back, trying to hold back my laughter.

Caulder only groaned in response, not bothering to loosen his grip in the slightest.

"Do you want me to pee the bed?" I joked. I didn't have to go that badly, but I still wanted to wash my face and relieve myself so I could cuddle back up with him in complete comfort. "Fine," he begrudgingly muttered, letting go of me. "Just don't take too long. I already miss you."

I scooted out of the bed, shaking my head. I hurried to the bathroom, eager to return to bed. Even though I had teased Caulder, I wanted to return to his arms as soon as possible, the longing in my chest increasing every second I was away from him.

Once I was in the bathroom, I went to the sink and splashed water on my face. I felt better once the oil that had collected while I was sleeping was gone, but when I looked in the mirror, I hesitated. I looked like the same person, but there was something about my reflection that felt different now. My cheek bones were more defined, and my arms seemed more toned.

I blinked a few times, wondering if I was crazy, but it felt like I had a slight glow up. Was this the effect of completing a mate bond? I stared at myself for a few more minutes. If there were changes, they were extremely subtle, so I couldn't decide if anything was actually different. I knew mate bonds made werewolves stronger, since they were able to feed off the strength of their mate, but no one had ever talked about physical changes before.

After a moment, I shook my head, deciding it wasn't worth driving myself crazy. Plus, Caulder was waiting for me back in the bed, and that sounded nicer than worrying about whether my body had changed overnight.