“Is there anyone I should call for you? Or do you want to call them?”
Her sweet green eyes held nothing but honesty, as she shook her head.
“There is only me now.”
“Now?”
She lifted her hand and started to bite her nails. It looked like she was getting nervous or anxious, and I feared I might have triggered something in her, but then she started to smile, and the smile soon turned to a soft laughter. Was she really laughing, I wondered, as I looked at her shocked. She continued to do so, until she noticed my strange look on my face, then she stopped herself and removed her hand.
“Sorry, I must look like a crazy person, suddenly just laughing out of the blue. I’m just so … happy!”
“I can see that,” I said, still a bit confused by her behavior.
“When you asked me if I had someone you could call, and I said no, it … it just made me realize there really wasn’t anyone for you to call and it made me happy.”
“It made you happy not to have anyone to call?”
“I know how that must sound like, but yes. It did!”
Was she actually crazy, I thought, just for a second, before reminding myself, I didn’t know her whole story. Maybe she had had an abusive boyfriend or mate, or something and the person had died. Maybe she was just happy to be free of them.
“Well, I will let you get some more rest then. Your doctor said it was important you got a lot of rest and food, so you could recover,” I said and got up from the bed.
“You don’t want to ask me my story?” she asked, confused.
“I told you. You don’t have to tell me anything you’re not comfortable telling me. It’s your story. You tell it to me or you don’t or you tell it to someone else. You decide.”
She smiled sweetly at me, but when I turned to leave, she grabbed my hand. With my help, she slowly got up from the bed.
“What are you doing? You should stay on the bed,” I said, worried, but only tightened my grip on her hand, when I saw she was trying to get up.
She let out a deep exhausted breath, as she finally stood on her feet again. Then her green eyes stared at mine. They were deep and serious, and I wondered what she was going to tell me, but she didn’t say a word. Instead, she lifted her hand and lightly brushed the side of my blazer away, so my covered shoulder came into view. The white shirt was a little see-through, and when it covered me you could just barely glimpse the mark that was now nothing but a painful reminder of a past I was trying to forget. I stared back at Cecilia almost terrified, before I let go of her and took a step back. I quickly covered myself and asked:
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“It hurts. Doesn’t it?”
I just stared at her confused.
“When they mark you and then they throw you away for someone else.”
The happy woman I had just met a few minutes ago had disappeared, and a dark version now stood in front of me. Her eyes were still on my shoulder, even though it was covered now, but then she turned her eyes to me. The green now looked like glass, as if there was nothing behind them.
“I think you’ll want to hear my story.”
***
Selene tries to return to normal after months of being isolated from the upper-class world, she was once famous in, but being thrown away by the king for a traitor's daughter has made her the joke of the society. A new resident comes to her home for abused and left behind mates, but she is so much different from the rest of the residents … She is happy. Intrigued by the new resident and her story, Selene learns how she can cut her last tie to Valerio and maybe finally be able to claim back her life, but she does not know at what cost.
Rider was presumed dead by everyone, even his own brother Valerio. He stayed hidden, too damaged by his family’s, and most of all his twin brother Ryker’s death. He decided to put down his weapons and choose another way, to save life instead of taking them. Riders finds James, a very important person to his brother Valerio, who had been missing for months, and decides to help get James home, but James is not easy to convince, and it forces Rider out of hiding.
*Book Four*
Recommended to first read: A Bite From An Alpha King, A Beta's Undying Love and A Second Chance Mate