Cursed by Fate (COMPLETE)

Chapter Fifteen

A month passed and Lance and I have grown very close. It was rare you ever saw us apart. And whenever one of these clingy women decided they wanted to get handsy, I ended up flooring them. People quickly learned not to touch him, and to fear me. Not something I wanted to happen but hey, what can I say. They touched someone that wasn’t theirs to touch. What was I supposed to do, let them? Ha! I think not. 

“So what are we doing today?” I chriped, swinging our hands between us. I was in high spirits today for some reason, and was excited to share it with Lance. He however seemed a bit on edge. He locked his elbow bringing my swinging motion to a stop. I stared down at our hands for a minute in confusion before looking back up to him. His face was tightly drawn. Lines creased his forehead, his jaw ticked, there was a tightness around his eyes I haven’t seen before. And his brown eyes seemed hard. Mean almost. 

“Lance, are you alright?” I asked timidly. I was worried how he’d respond if my voice was any louder, or held more authority like it usually did. I’ve never seen Lance act like this before. 

He didn’t answer. The lines in his brow just deepened, as more formed around his eyes. Something was wrong and I didn’t like it. I didn’t like how Lance was starting to act. It was actually starting to scare me, almost as bad as Elias did. And that’s saying something. The last person I would ever compare Lance to was Elias. But this version of Lance, I did not like. 

“Lance?” 

“Nicole, stop.” He said firmly.

“Stop? Stop what?” I asked, getting angry, pulling my hand from his. 

“Pretending that you care.” He roared, throwing his hands in the air. 

I flinched away from him, stumbling back at his tone. “Lance, what’s going on?” I asked, shaking my head from side to side. “You know I’m not pretending. You know I care about you. I’ve never given you a reason to believe otherwise.” I said, my voice wavering. What was going on? Why was he acting like this? I continued to stare at him, his brown eyes dark and filled with an anger I’ve never seen in him. 

“You come here and we find out I am one of three choices you have as a potential mate.” He scoffs. “You pretend for the last month that you care, that you truly wanted to get to know me, the real me. And now, I see you for who you really are. Nothing. No wonder Elias stalked you the way he did.” Lance sneered. “He knew you were a selfish rich brat that would doom us all just so she could have her way. You’ve planned to leave this entire time.” 

I was looking at my feet, tears streaming down my face. What? How could he say things like that? What did I do? What did I say? I’ve been nothing but kind and caring. Nothing but understanding. The only time I ever showed any kind of negative reaction was when other women touched him. 

“I never planned on leaving.” I said brokenly. “I never planned on dooming any of you, I’d rather take my own life and free all of you than doom you to a life with no love.” I finally looked up to him, his eyes wide, regret, confusion and pain laced his features. “And I never. Never, once pretended to care for you. I’d never lead you or anyone else on like that. And for you to stand here and tell me that what Elias did was deserved, well f**k you Lance. I never did anything to deserve to be stalked and claimed before I even knew what was happening. I never deserved to be scared into running from the only place I ever knew as home, or from where I wanted to go to college.” I shook my head, looking back to my feet. “I should go.” I whispered, then ran. 

And I mean I ran. Faster than I have ever ran in my life. Trees blurred past me in streaks of green and brown, barely even distinguishable as trees. But I could see perfectly fine. I had no trouble navigating my way around the trees and through town and back to the house. Could I even call it home anymore? Should I leave now?

No, I can’t just keep running. I need to face this, face them. I should have known Lance was too good to be true. That no man was that perfect. But where did all that come from? He seemed fine when we left the house, happy even. But as we walked through town and into the forest, things changed. What the hell happened? 

I dropped onto the couch and held my head in my hands. So when the door burst open, almost splintering with the force, I screamed. It scared the s**t out of me since I was not expecting it. I stood and faced a heavily breathing Lance. His eyes looked almost manic, his features drawn into a mask of pain and heartache. 

“Nicole, listen to me please.” He begged as he approached me. 

I wanted to back up, wanted to move away, but my body froze. My muscles were so rigid it was painful. “Nicole please, that wasn’t me. I didn’t mean any of it.” He shook his head as if trying to clear a fog from his head. “I don’t know what happened. These thoughts just all of a sudden came into my head, emotions that weren’t my own flooded me. I’m sorry, it wasn’t me, please forgive me.” He pleaded. 

“Then who was it?” I asked shakily. 

Manic laughter came from the doorway pulling our attention towards the source. “Wow, that was too easy.” He laughed. 

Anger flared inside me. How dare he? That son of a b***h. I was not used to this new speed thing so when I went to approach him, I almost bulldozed over him. It worked in my favor though because as soon as I stopped not even an inch away from him I punched him as hard as I could. The satisfying sound of crunching followed, making me smile. “You son of a bitch.” I seethed. “How dare you mess with his mind like that.” I stalked over to him where he still lay on the floor staring up at me wide eyed. “You think just because you are a vampire, and look the way you do I’ll choose you?” I laughed maniacally. “f**k you Elias. You are nothing but a bully, a piece of s**t that doesn't deserve to even be an option. Unless you can dramatically change your attitude and, well basically everything, then I suggest you leave, because you have no chance.” 

“Well brother, it seems she’s grown into herself since she’s left. You no longer intimidate or scare her.” Mathias’s voice came from behind me. I froze for a split second before shaking my head with a sigh and making my way back over to Lance. 

He looked like a whipped puppy when I approached him. “It’s alright Lance. I knew what you were saying didn’t sound like you, and how you were acting wasn’t like you. But I just had no other reason as to why you would flip the way you did. I’m sorry for what I said as well.” I wrapped my arms around his waist and nuzzled into his chest. 

Lance released a relieved sigh and rested his cheek on top of my head. “I would never in a million years hurt you, Uwoduhi. Now with words, not physically nor any other way. You are everything my sweet.” 

I smiled into his chest. “I don’t want to hurt you either.” 

“Nicole?” Mathias’s voice questioned meekly. 

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before turning to him. He looked haggard. His beautiful green eyes I loved had dulled, a thick beard covered his jaw and his hair was longer. He looked leaner than he had been. What happened to him? 

“Mathias?” I whispered, walking up to him and brushing my fingers down his cheek. “What happened to you?” 

“You left me.” He said sadly, grabbing my hand and holding it firmly against his chest. “You never let me explain. Never gave me a chance.” His voice sounded broken, like he was only half the man he was when I left him. 

“Can you blame me?” I asked. “I had just found things out. Elias was stalking me. And the second I told you where I was you knew, but said nothing. Even when you made it to the hotel you said nothing. I found out from your d**k of a brother.”

A hissing sound came from Elias and I turned and glared. “Shove it, bite boy.” I hissed.

“No. I can’t. I should have told you when you called. But if I had I would have had to explain the hybrid thing as well and you would have thought I was crazy and refused to see me. I had to do it in person so I could prove what I was saying was true. But then, Elias burst in before I could. I swear I was going to tell you.” 

I looked up into his green eyes. It hurt my heart to see them so void of life. “I loved your eyes.” I whispered. “They look so lifeless now. I’m sorry.” 

Mathias chuckled lightly and pulled my hand to his face. “I’ve missed you Nicole. The light you’ve brought into my life is so bright it lit up my entire world. When you left my world fell dark. There was no light, no hope. Just a void, just darkness. I needed my light back.” He said cupping my face between his hands. 

“Mathias.” I whisper leaning into his hand. “Why? Why did you never say anything? Why did you never tell me any of this?” 

“I did tell you I’ve never felt like this about anybody else. That you’re the only one.” 

I shook my head, my mind in chaos as my thoughts whirl and bounce around my head giving me a headache. It felt like more than I could handle. I groaned, massaging my temples. “I need coffee.” I moaned, pushing past Mathias and heading to the kitchen. 

I heard the shuffling of feet behind me telling me they were all following, but I ignored them. All but Lance. “Lance, could you call Malachi please. I think he should know our guests have arrived.”  Lance breezed by Mathias and Elias with a smirk as he pulled me into his arms and kissed my forehead. “Of course Uwoduhi.”

“Thank you.” I smiled leaning into his chest. 

Lance pulled away and walked out of the room phone in hand as he spoke quietly to Malachi. I knew he wouldn’t be happy. He wanted to be here, and by what I told him he was not a fan of them. I bet he would be here within ten minutes of Lance’s phone call, and he would show up pissed. He would be bulked up, seething mad. Not at me, at them. He would barge in here and place himself in front of me, blocking me from them. If that happens like I think, I will laugh. 

“So who is he?” Elias asked with a sneer. 

“He is Lance. And you will respect him.” I said firmly. “He is the third potential mate. I have found all three of you and only two of you have made an impact on me. You, however Elias I do not like, at all. You have proven yourself to be more of a pain in the ass than you seem to be worth.” 

Elias snarled as he stormed towards me. “You..” As he went to grab my arm he was thrown away from me so quickly I didn’t have time to blink. A roar so ferocious, so menacing filled the kitchen, the sound froze my blood and made chills creep down my spine. 

“Touch her, think about touching her or hurting her and I’ll end you.” Malachi growled as he crouched in front of me. Well that was fast. 

I crossed my arms and smirked at Elias over Malachi's shoulder. I knew this would happen. He was protective by nature. But since I got here he seemed to have become more protective of me than usual. Not that I’m complaining. If it wasn’t for him Elias would have just grabbed me and done who knows what. I probably could have got away, but proving to them that I have protectors was amazing. 

I don’t know what the next month before my shift will bring, or the time after. But I do know that I am both looking forward and not looking forward to it at the same time. I want to spend more time with Lance. Get to know Mathias better, throw Elias under a train. But I digress. I was excited to see what the future brought, and excited to see what my wolf looked like. I was also scared of the shift. It sounded and looked like it hurt. 

“You have a guard dog now Nicole?” Elias sneered. 

“Shut up Elias.” I snapped. “You need to leave. Now. You’re not welcome here. When you decide you can behave you can return.” 

“No way.” Elias said harshly. “I am one of the three. You can’t send me away.” 

“Bull s**t. I can. All I have to do is reject you right here and now and whatever small bond we have will be broken. So which do you choose? Go now and think about changing yourself or I can reject you and you can go about your merry way? It’s your decision.” 

Elias growled as he began pacing the kitchen. All eyes followed him as he paced. His canines descended into sharp fangs, his features sharpened and his eyes started to glow as his vampire side started to take over. “You’re impossible.” Elias said shaking his head. “I’ll go. But I’ll be back.” All I did was nod as he walked out the door.