And Then There Were Four

"Don't reject me. Give me a chance to show you I can be good to you, that I can give you a life that you want." As much as I wanted to believe him, there was a darkness that surrounded him which made me wary. A darkness that called my name, wanting me to give in.

I wasn't the kind of girl who could easily love. With all of the power that radiated inside me, I was constantly cautious. Worried someone would try to take advantage of me, worried someone would try to use me to hurt the ones I loved.

Melissa was the only one outside of my family I trusted.

The only one I could ever let in.

She was everything to me, and nothing would change that.

Past had proved I couldn't trust men. One time, I tried to let a man in and that failed. Even the one-night stands I had to try and relieve the built up tension in my body proved to be nothing but a waste of time from men who thought they could get in good with my family. Fucking assholes, all of them.

"Lucas-" The moment I said his name, I hadn't been thinking. For forever I'd always called him by his last name, and as I said his first name, his lips descended upon mine and took my breath away in the most passionate and heated kiss I'd ever had. His tongue fought for dominance over mine, flicking and tasting me, a deep rumble erupted from his chest.

Every ounce of my body screamed for the desire to have more, but I couldn't. I was so conflicted about how I felt, I wanted to cry. I was honestly overthinking it more than I probably should have.

So, after he parted his lips from mine, I quickly placed my hand against his chest and stepped back, trying to catch my breath. Glancing at him, wide eyed in shock, I turned and ran.

I wasn't sure why I was running, hell wasn't sure what I was doing at all. But the moment I cleared the woods and my eyes landed on Lux, I knew bad things were about to happen. "Lux, please. It's not what you think."

My brother narrowed his gaze at me with a disgusted look in his eyes. "Not what I think. What the fuck are you doing with him?"

"I'm her mate. have a right to be with her." Lucas's voice caused shivers once more to cross over my

né

skin, and as I looked over my shoulder at him, I watched him step from the shadows with his arms crossed over his chest in a

defensive manner.

"He's your mate?! Are you fucking kidding me? This piece of shit is the man you're meant to be with?" Pollux was being completely unreasonable and I was slightly offended he would even talk about Lucas like that. "Lux, you-you're being unreasonable," I stammered. "Can we not do this tonight? Let's just take tonight to finish enjoying the party and then tomorrow we can talk about this."

I saw the look in my brother's eye I had only seen a handful of times before. He was angry, far past angry, and with the power flowing through him, he was slowly spiraling out of control. I wasn't so sure why he hated Lucas so much, but it was obvious whatever was going toText property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

happen was not going to be good.

"I should have fucking killed you a long time ago," he growled as he glared at Lucas. "You will never have her. I told you before to stay away and you just couldn't fucking do it, could you?"

What the hell did he mean, he told him before? Does this mean my own brother knew that Lucas was my mate, and he never told me?

"Did you know?" I asked him in shock as I slapped my hand across his chest, watching his eyes dart to me, his teeth bared and a slow shift coming over him. "Did you know that he was my mate and you didn't say anything?"

"Of course I fucking knew. He came

snooping around the day he turned

eighteen looking for you. I didn't approve of him from the beginning, and if you thought for a second would ever approve of a man like him being with my sister, then you're sadly mistaken."