Page 75 of Eternally Bound
“I should have told you this before you left here. You might have stayed away if you had known the consequences of your returning, but I didn’t want you to have this knowledge hanging over your head. I wanted you to truly know freedom.”
He would have sacrificed himself for her; he had, in a way. Her heart swelled with emotion as she gazed at him. Love, she loved this man. She didn’t know when it had happened, but it had, and it didn’t matter if she hadn’t known him for long or not. She loved him, but was she ready to give up everything she’d ever known for him?
She contemplated Declan’s promise to change her if she didn’t allow Ronan to do it. He knew Ronan would kill him if he did it, but Declan cared enough for Ronan to die for him; everyone in this place did. That said more about him than anything else, she knew.
“If there wasn’t some kind of mate connection between us, would you even like me?” she asked.
She didn’t know why she required the answer to that, but she did. She respected and admired him, and she wanted the same from him.
His mouth pursed, the lines etching the corners of his lips revealing his strain. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, if I had been a normal woman who you met, would you like my personality? Would you like who I am and want to get to know me better, or would you find me annoying?”
For the briefest of seconds, brown swirled within his eyes again as he strode across the room and cupped her cheek. She turned into his hand, nuzzling his palm and the slice in his flesh from another wound he’d sustained last night.
“Yes, Kadence, even without the mate bond I’d want to get to know you better. You’re unlike anyone I’ve ever met before. You have more courage than most of the men and women I’ve come across in my lifetime. Though there have been times when you’ve annoyed me.”
His lips quirked at these last words and she smiled back at him. “The feeling is mutual.”
“I’m sure it is. You must know, I will protect you and our children with everything I am.”
She couldn’t breathe as she lifted her hand to clasp his against her cheek. “It is difficult for a hunter to conceive. Whether it’s on the male’s part, the female’s part, or perhaps both, we can often go a lifetime without children.”
“Then I will protectyouwith all that I am for every day of our lives together. I am the only purebred who has five generations of purebreds as ancestors before me. None of them were mated, they simply bred to create a stronger line. At one point, such a thing was expected of me, but that was centuries ago. Over the years, it has become an expectation that I never planned to fulfill.”
“What changed?” she asked. “Why have you not fathered children?”
“After the Savage attack that killed my parents, I was more focused on revenge, on trying to protect the vampires who remained and slowly rebuilding the Defenders, than on trying to have children. I never took the king title, so I didn’t see it as necessary to have an heir. Then, as time went on, I had no interest in women or having a child, until now.”
“But—”
“It doesn’t matter if we don’t have children, Kadence. All I want is you; a child would only be a bonus.”
“I’m scared of this.”
“I know, and you have every right to be. My bite will not hurt if you don’t fight it. The transition will though. It’s excruciating for a mortal to become immortal, but you will never have to experience it again once it’s over. It may also be different for you, given what you are. You already have some demon DNA in you, the transition could be worse.”
“Or it could be easier.”
“It could.”
“What would become of me if we are mated and you turn Savage?” she asked.
“I will not turn Savage, not while I have you. The bond between us will keep me grounded; it will be the thing I want most in this world. Not blood, not death,you.”
She sucked in a breath and bit her lip at this revelation. Then, she recalled Declan’s words from before.“Fate is a fickle bitch, and sometimes she takes even the best of us down, but sometimes she also intervenes to save us.”It suddenly made sense to her now, as did his reason for not intervening when she decided she wouldn’t return to the stronghold.
Declan was hoping to save Ronan from becoming a Savage, and he believed she was the key to keeping him sane.
Her fingers fiddled with the edges of her sleeves as she tried to process everything. She’d never feel the sun’s warmth again, she’d have to feed on blood for the rest of her life, and the hunters may all turn against her forever. No matter what Ronan said, she thought he might let her walk away again if she asked him to let her go.
And then what? She couldn’t return to the stronghold, she wouldn’t have Marta and Baldric to help her go somewhere else this time, and she would destroy Ronan if she left. She cared too much for him to inflict that on him. But was she ready to die and be reborn as the one thing she’d been raised to hate? Was she ready to give up the sun and drink blood?
Her gaze went to the shuttered window. No matter what she decided, she had to feel the rays of the sun on her one more time.
“I can give you time to process this,” he said.
She tore her eyes away from the window and back to him. “I would really like that.”
