Chapter 96

When she was gone, I looked back at Candido, whose jaw was set in a firm line. He looked upset, but not angry.

At least, I hoped he wasn’t that angry.

“I’m sorry,” I said softly. “I shouldn’t have…. There’s so much that I—"

“You endangered your life just to make me jealous,” Candido said. “Do you know what would have happened to me if you had died?”

My lips twitched. I felt warm hearing him say that. His voice was tight with emotion like he was trying to hold himself back from crying. Maybe he really did care about me as much as I had hoped, even before then. Maybe without the whole mate thing, it wouldn’t have been so hard to get him to admit it, and all of this could have been avoided.

“I know that now…”

“When the car was crashing… when you called my name,” his voice trembled and wavered. “Have you any idea how terrified I was when I realized you were in so much danger and I wasn’t close enough to save you? Do you know?”

I winced and nodded. “I understand. I’m sorry, Candido.”

He lifted my head and stared into my eyes.

“I don’t need your apology,” he said. “And it… should be me apologizing for not realizing who you were… For being so afraid of all of this and being so stupid not to see what was in front of me.”

I smiled, hoping that he was going to tell me exactly what I’d want to hear. That he loved me, that he wanted me as much as I wanted him.

“I should have known the first time I met you in that ridiculous attempt at a mask that there was only one person who could have been Pandora.”

My eyes widened.

His lips twitched. “I should have known… I should have accepted the truth as soon as I realized that I was drawn to you so many years ago, when we first met, that there could have been no one else.”

“I… I don’t understand—”

“I’m Armageddon,” he said. I froze. My stomach jolting. “The reason… the reason that you had such a reaction to me is that I restrain my powers when I’m out of the mask.”

My eyes widened. “What does that even mean? Restrain your—” I broke off as I felt him so strongly, I could barely breathe. His eyes were full of moonlight, but he’d removed the watch that he always wore from his wrist and he licked his lips.

He leaned closer, drawing me up against him. His hand settled in the small of my back and I shivered. I felt him. I felt how much he wanted me. I could feet his heart beating in time with mine. For the first time since the mark had started to appear since I started getting these feelings, I didn’t doubt that he and I were fated to be together. I wrapped my arms around his neck and pressed our mouths together, kissing him deeply as my heart felt so full that I could barely breathe.

He groaned and turned me, pushing me down the way I had dreamed so many times. My heart raced as he licked into my mouth. I pulled at him, trying to get him to relax and settle his weight on me, but he didn’t.

He pulled back, and I let out a little moaning gasp. I was dizzy with need. I wanted him to touch me.

He reared back and fastened the watch around his wrist. The feeling ebbed, but it didn’t disappear.

“How…”

“It’s made of a silver alloy,” he said. “It… allows me to separate from my job with Moon Shadow and… control my powers a bit better.”

I frowned. “What does that mean?”

“You don’t—” he winced and shook his head. “It will take a while for me to break the habit of trying to protect you.”

I sat up and took his hand. “You do protect me… but I don’t need protecting from you.”

He shook his head. “I never wanted you to grow up like this, to put yourself in some much danger like this. When you joined, I hadn’t wanted to put you in the field because of how old I suspected you to be, but it had been out of my control.”

I lowered my gaze. “You’re… All this time.”

He turned from me and shifted to the edge of the bed, leaning on his knees and staring at the wall.

“There’s so much to say.”

I crawled over and sat beside him, unable to argue. There was so much to think about, so much to say, but it also felt like we had said everything that we needed to say. Maybe that was how we should think about all of this. That we had said and done everything that we needed to and now we could just… be?

“Candido,” I said softly. He sunk onto the bed beside me. “Could we… Could we just… start over?”

“Start over?” he chuckled. “What would that even look like between the two of us?”

“Somewhere in between where we are and… marriage, I guess.”

He looked at me, and he swallowed so loud I could hear it. “Your birthday… is coming.”

I bit my lip. “It is.”

His nostrils flared, and his gaze dragged over me before he turned his gaze away. I felt the air heating around us and shivered, wondering if her was tempted to kiss me. What did it feel like when he wasn’t wearing the watch?

If he hadn’t been wearing it when we first met, how much different would my life be now?

“That night when you brought me to the Estate… did you feel it then?”

He blew out a breath. “Probably. I didn’t… want to believe it. You were just a child, but the… instinct was there.”

My face burned. “If I hadn’t… said I was twenty then?”

He scoffed. “Nothing would have changed… though maybe I wouldn’t have been so keen to throw you into the forest.”

I scowled at him. “Why were you so ready to throw me into the woods?”

“You could have been a spy.” He said. “Much like the spy that led to the attack on the headquarters.”

I winced at that. “Francium was involved, but he wasn’t the main one.”

“I know,” he said. “We’re still looking into it.” He sighed again. “As for your birthday and what happens after that, I don’t know. You’re injured and not at full strength. We don’t even know if the mark means you will complete a full transformation.”

I winced, and my shoulders slumped. Was it possible that all the poison had really ruined any chance I had to be with Candido the way I was meant to? When people talked about being with their mates, they talked about running through the forest with them, of feeling what they felt, of knowing them so well that it felt like they were the same person.

Would that be true for us? Could that still be true for us?

He stood and turned to me before I could protest. I went quiet at the flash of moonlight in his eyes.

“Whatever it takes for you to… be able to stand at my side the way you were always meant to, is what will have to be done.”

My lips twitched. “What does that mean?”

“Only time will tell what that will look like.” He offered me his hand. “Now, I have someone to introduce you to.”

I frowned but I took his hand, relishing the feel of his hand in mine as he pulled me to my feet gently and led me to the door. It felt different. We would have to talk a lot about everything that we’d said in and out of the mask, but I was sure that everything would be different now.

He wouldn’t push me out. He couldn’t push me out. I could stand by his side as his princess until I could be his queen.

I smiled at the thought. I was going to be the alpha queen one day. May I’d invite Sibyl and her father to the wedding just to spite them.

He opened the door and turned me to look at the Blue Moon’s leader as she leaned against the wall. She looked up at him. They shared a long silent stare before she turned towards us. She stopped barely a foot away.

“Everything alright?” She looked at me. “He’s not causing you trouble, is he?”

I shook my head. “We’ve… come to an understanding.”

She nodded. “What sort of understanding?”

“That I was being… over protective,” Candido said. “And it was only making us both miserable.”

She shrugged. “I’m not surprised.”

He nodded. “I’d like to formally introduce you to Hedy… my mate.”

The woman stood straight.

“Hedy… this is my mother’s sister, Vanessa.”