Chapter 4

I went straight at him.

"Damon, she called my mom a fool for rushing to hand her daughter off as your second mate. That's the 'knows nothing' girl you've been keeping?"

Damon took a deep breath.

"Even if she said something off, you shouldn't have hit her. Since when did you become this unreasonable?"

Unreasonable.

I looked at the way he'd already put her behind him, and the fire in me went out under ice water.

"She insulted my mom, I put her in her place, and that's unreasonable?"

I laughed, and tears rose without warning, blurring my vision. "Then what were you, these six years, keeping two women on the hook, lying straight through? What does that make you?"

"Enough!" He gripped my wrist. "I've told you everything. What else do you want? Can't you be a little more reasonable, like Chloe? Can you try to accept this?"

He squeezed the bridge of his nose, softening. "Let's talk calmly. Not here. This looks bad."

I looked at that always-reasonable face, and suddenly all the arguing felt pointless.

I raised my head and forced the tears back.

"Damon." My voice came out flat. "There's nothing left to say between us."

He paused. "Didn't you say the ceremony..."

"Yes, the ceremony goes on." My eyes swept to that smug little actress behind him, then landed on his face. "I'm owed that, aren't I? For six years."

I used to dream about a ceremony in front of everyone.

Now I was grateful it was just a formality.

Once it was over, we could all walk off.

The day of the ceremony, the sun was bright.

My mom wore a deep red gown and had dusted powder on her face to cover how tired she looked.

She smiled at everyone she met, praising, "Our Evie's got such good fortune, she's found an excellent mate, ambitious and knows how to take care of her..."

Yes. He did know how to take care of people.

Six years together, he'd been perfect with my mom. Nothing to fault.

To the elders, he was steady, well-mannered, reliable.

If he hadn't, at twenty-one, entered a marking bond with an eighteen-year-old girl.

Today, I should have been such a happy bride.

I held back the tears. "Mom, don't tire yourself out."

"I'm not tired," she said, eyes on my white ceremony gown. "My daughter looks so beautiful today."

The officiant was saying the blessings on the stage.

Damon stood next to me, suit sharp.

Everything went smoothly. Until the moment before the exchange of vows.

The doors of the hall were slammed open.

A thin figure came stumbling in.

Voice thin and weak: "Damon... I, I'm scared..."

Before she finished, she crumpled to the floor.

My heart seized.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the forced smile on my mom's face, and I pressed every feeling down hard.

I saw Damon about to step down off the platform without thinking.

I grabbed his hand and held on.

I looked up at him, and my voice came out close to begging:

"Damon... just twenty minutes. Finish the ceremony, and someone will take her to the hospital."

"My mom is watching. Don't let her think... I picked the wrong man. Please, just this once, finish it. Okay?"

I tried to give him a smile, but it came out worse than crying.

Damon's brow pulled tight, and his voice was hard:

"Chloe's in an unknown state, and you want me to keep acting this out with you for twenty minutes? Is your ceremony more important than a life?"

The words were like poison needles in the armor I was holding together.

The next second, while I was still stunned, he jerked his hand away, and I stumbled back into the wine tower behind me and knocked it over.

In front of the stunned guests, he strode straight to the collapsed girl.

"Damon!" I pulled out the last of my strength to stop him.

I forced out the words through the cramping in my stomach. "If you walk out that door today, you and I are over for the rest of our lives."

The hall went dead silent.

He only turned his head slightly and left me with one cold line:

"You, right now — I don't even recognize you."

Then he scooped up Chloe and walked out without looking back.

The officiant stood there frozen.

My legs gave out, and I sank to the cold floor.

The pulling pain in my stomach grew worse and worse.

Until the white gown turned red... followed by a heavy thud.

That thin, wasted hand, the one trying to deliver me safely into "happiness" before she went, let go.

...

The car had been on the road a few minutes when Chloe stirred awake.

She leaned weakly on Damon's shoulder, murmuring things like, "I didn't mean to, I was just so scared."

He answered her with an absent, "Mm."

An image of the last look Evelyn had given him flashed through his mind.

His chest dropped for a second, and then irritation replaced it.

Women were such a nuisance.

One small thing and they turned it into a storm. Was a human life really that cheap in her eyes?

His phone buzzed.

He picked up, impatient. "Go."

His old friend Declan's voice came through, shaken in a way that was rare for him:

"Damon... something bad happened at the ceremony!"

Damon rubbed his temple. "What happened?"

"I'm not sure. I heard Evelyn was covered in blood."