“So I’d gone through with it and made it so that My Fated Mate would never burn yellow for me as did the flame of the Betrayer King’s mate before I extinguished it. And I understood immediately what appearing here on this night meant. This was the night, the moment when Ola stopped being my fated mate. And this was my chance, my very last chance to make her mine. So after subduing you and sending her uncle and the new Colby away, I met my fated mate anew with a kiss.
“What has followed has been the most blissful time of my life.
“I know you are most likely still thinking upon revenge. I remember how that need burned inside of me, an ember that never went out. But I am leaving you this message to tell you what I wish I had known before I set forth with the actions that would render it so that my fated mate could never forgive me. Revenge is an illusion. The satisfaction you believe it will bring never arrives. And after all the killing is done, you are left with nothing but the memory of their pleas and screams and the sight of her dead body upon the forest floor.
“That kiss she pressed upon you, false and meant to distract, was the best moment of your life. Better than any revenge. Indeed, I feel sorry for drakkon like you and even my mate. For you will never know this absolute certainty I now have. That this love, this yellow flame burning inside of you, is worth more than pride, more than whatever reverence we owe our father. More than anything.
“I have thought so often of killing you. There is a chance that without our fated mate’s death and the knowledge of the Betrayer King’s drakki, you will never be able to understand as I do now. But our cousin warned me against killing you before our hatchling was born. He said that we were not dealing with an area of quantum physics he could fully understand. There is a chance, he told me, that I will not be able to stay once a new timeline is established.
“And so I must keep you alive in case I cannot stay. But if you are the fortunate one who gets to spend the rest of our mate’s life with her and not me, you must pay me back for the work I have done to grant you this opportunity. Consume yourself no longer with thoughts of vengeance, for I have already taken it. That deed is done. And now your only duty is to pay our fated mate her due reverence. You must grant her every wish. And in return, she will shower you with a love you do not deserve. A love so much better than pride or revenge.”
The message ends abruptly, without a goodbye.
Yet it feels like a goodbye.
Did I say I wasn’t a crying-ass bitch at the beginning of this story?
Well, I was wrong. So, so wrong.
Y’all are going to have to act like I never even said that, because here I go again.
“You were right,” I say to Damianos with tears running down my face.
His body stiffens at my words, like he’s bracing for my rejection. And I can feel his fear like my own.
But then I tell him, “He wasn’t you. And I’m so glad he gave you the chance, gave both of us the chance to be better than our history.”
Damianos rocks backward as if a great wave had crashed into him. Then he says, “You honor me with your forgiveness. Thank you, Reverence. Thank you.”
I look back up at him, my eyes just as soft and sincere as all the emotions rushing over our mate bond. “Nah, Triple D, you need to be thanking Other You. Because now you know your mate will not hesitate to cut a dragon bitch if you don’t treat her right.”
He rumble laughs, holding nothing back. Then he vows, “I will show you now, Queen of Drakkon, just how right I will treat you…for the rest of your life.”
I guess neither of us were as tired as we thought.
We stay up all night sealing our vows with kisses, orgasms, and promises for the future to come.
Epilogue
FENRIS
Many winters later
“I don’t understand why Willie would choose to let that serpent walk her down the aisle when either Olafr or I could have given her an arm,” Fenris’ eldest son, FJ groused right before the sound of a Chinese bridal march signaled them all to rise.
Today’s wedding was taking place in the gardens of the groom’s palace in a land called China. But this was a tradition Fenris had come to know in many forms over the thirty winters since Chloe and he had arrived in this time period, whether it took place under the roof of a church or a pagoda.