CHAPTER 152: GODDESS CHOSEN MATE [PART 2]

• ELOISE •

Stupid Eloise!

I went to him in the dead of the night. I went to him because my body screamed at me, and yet when I was in proximity after days of being apart, I ruined it.

"Goddess," I swore, placing my hand on the platform, my eyes on the fountain.

It’s been chaos after what the Fates declared, and I’m still having a hard time grasping it completely. All I could think of was Drevon.

I’ll see you tomorrow? Couldn’t you have said anything better, Eloise? What is wrong with you?!

I growled, straightening my spine. That’s it! I did this to myself. I tell myself that I don’t deserve him, that I have broken his heart and hurt him beyond any words could fathom.

There were unsaid feelings, and the more I chose to ignore or not have the courage to say them, the more it felt suffocating.

Forget what the Fates said, goddess chosen mate, Queen. I only want Drevon for the rest of my life, and it’s high time I stopped bleeding out to my frozen heart to feel something when I already know what I want.

Drevon and I are torn already by these emotions that’re gnawing our insides, but he has made peace with his. It’s time to make mine.

I twirled, desperate to run back to him, but I stopped by Damon.

He didn’t keep his stance straight; he was floppy, and his dark, shoulder-length hair was a mess, his cheeks flushed, and his eyes unfocused.

"Hello, pretty Lou. It’s been a long night, hasn’t it?"

"Damon."

He smiled. "I love the way you say my name. Am I greedy if I ask that you keep saying it?" He staggered towards me.

I stepped back, alarmed, but I was trapped between the fountain and him.

"What’s wrong, pretty Lou? Why do you look so scared?

"You’re drunk."

Damon was hard to handle, but a drunk one? I feared for my safety.

He chuckled, but then it turned into a full-blown laugh, ringing through the air.

"Goddess Chosen," he said in a vile tone. "Do you know what that means? It means you’re a mate chosen by the goddess for Drevon. It’s always all about him. First, my birthright was taken away from me because of the goddess, and now... I cannot have you because of the goddess."

"It’s late, Damon. Let’s talk tomorrow."

He said nothing; his silence was like an explosion waiting to happen.

"The goddess has damned me again. It’s not fair." He shook his head. "IT’S NOT FAIR!"

I yelped when he grabbed my shoulders in a bruising hold.

"I had a chance with you, but now that is all gone."

"Let me go!" I screamed at his face, a crack coming behind me, as the running water turned to ice.

"Never," he growled, and his canines sank into the spot where Drevon’s mark was.

My screams turned deaf to my ears as pain tore through me like knives. Tears gushed from my eyes, and I went numb, the pain too much to bear.

Damon freed my neck, cupping my cheek. "You said I had a frozen heart, but you’re wrong. It felt like my heart was being torn apart when the Fates declared you goddess chosen. I love you, Lou. Now you bear my mark, I don’t care if I have to share you with my brother, as long as you’re with me."

I raised my hand, but I could only make it to his collar, clenching hard with my might. I tried speaking, but I couldn’t.

"Lou?"

His voice echoed, everything became light, and the last thing I saw was Damon’s worried expression.

• DAMON •

Lou was everything to me. I didn’t know when I started to think that way, maybe it was when she came at me with nothing but words, and from that moment on, I wanted nothing more than to have her.

But I was going to lose her to my brother forever. I no longer cared for the dispute with him; he can just live with the fact that we will share her now. So I marked her without hesitation.

Her screams were gut-wrenching, but it only made me sink my canines deeper, knowing that after everything, she will be mine. It might take a while, she might even hate me more, but when she feels the mate bond, she would have no choice but to accept me.

"Lou?" I voiced when I felt something was off, she shouldn’t be this weak, she should be aroused by my mark and wanting nothing more for me to claim her intimately.

Mark. My blood ran cold, and a feeling twisted my insides. Her neck was oozing blood, pumping endlessly, and flowing to the ground.

Why is this happening?

Eloise clenched my collar tightly, and when I met her eyes, there was a sharp pain in my chest. She was in tears, trying to speak, eyes begging me to make it stop.

But then her eyelids grew heavy, her grip loosening.

I listened to her heartbeat, and it slowed down drastically. Her hand dropped to her side, and her eyes closed.

It began snowing, but I was too driven by what went wrong.

"Lou?"

Her heartbeat stopped.

"What did you do?!"

At the voice, I moved my eyes to Diana, her wide eyes on Eloise’s lifeless body. In a hurry, she ran to us and pushed me with all her might.

"GET AWAY FROM HER!" she shrieked. "YOU MONSTER!"

I rose to my feet, eyes leveling to my shaky hands smeared in Eloise’s blood.

"Eloise!" Diana bawled her eyes out, holding her tightly. "Wake up!"

I almost lost my footing as I backed away, using the back of my hand to wipe my lips, the taste of her blood still on my tongue.

No, no, no! This shouldn’t have happened. What have I done?

"He hurt her!" Diana yelled.

Drevon came into view, eyes not leaving Eloise, chest heaving before he turned his bloodshot eyes to me. The last time I saw my brother giving me that look was when he ripped my hand off when we were kids, but even his anger didn’t amount to this.

My life flashed before my eyes when Drevon shifted in his beast form and came at me in a bloodied rage.