Kissed by a Dark Prince(49)

He shouldn’t have to give up everything.

It wasn’t right.

He had already been through so much pain because of what had happened with Vail and now he was supposed to kill his only brother.

She hadn’t been able to kill hers.

She had wanted to save him too.

She hadn’t wanted to be alone.

And neither did Loren.

Olivia touched the marks on her throat, focusing on them, seeking Loren through their connection. He felt agitated, upset, and in pain. She ached to go to him and take that hurt away, to tell him that just because he was a prince, it didn’t mean he should have to live his life alone.

What was she doing?

She was supposed to be mad at Loren but she couldn’t blame him for wanting to save his brother, and she couldn’t blame him for what had happened at Archangel. She had demanded he let her stay there, even though he had told her it would be dangerous. She had ignored his warning and Vail had done exactly what Loren had said he would, targeting her in order to make him suffer.

Punishing him for the attempt he had made on Kordula’s life.

Olivia was as much to blame for the explosion as Loren was, but the true culprit was Vail. Vail was to blame for everything. He had turned on Loren and his people. He had driven his brother to war with him when all Loren wanted to do was save him and his people. He had forced this bond between Loren and her, all for the sake of revenge, stealing his brother’s only ki’ara because Loren felt too damned guilty about desiring her above the safety of his people and was too damned noble to say screw his duty and take a shot at winning her.

Olivia groaned. Did she want Loren to win her? She vaguely recalled feeling offended at one point by the fact that he wanted to break the bond, but that was before she had come to know him and know how attracted he was to her. He craved her as much as she craved him, and she was too tired and hurt to lie to herself anymore. It wasn’t the bond. Loren was six-feet-six of gorgeous with a heart of solid gold. Any woman in her right mind would want him and she was not certifiably crazy yet.

Did she want to win Loren?

Her heart tore her in too many directions until she wasn’t sure which one was the one she wanted most of all. There was one thing she kept coming back to though.

The last non-human she had trusted with her heart had broken it and her trust, and had destroyed the world she had carefully constructed for herself after her brother’s death.

She couldn’t go through that again. She couldn’t risk her heart. She wasn’t brave enough to do it, and that left her with only one direction.

She wanted this bond broken.

Didn’t she?





CHAPTER 11


Loren stood on the rooftop of the large complex of sandstone buildings in central London, his gaze on the night sky, studying the stars but not really seeing them. His thoughts were elsewhere, two floors down and five rooms to his left, where Olivia worked in her new laboratory in the Archangel headquarters.

Things had been tense between them since the attack on Archangel and he could understand why she was keeping her distance from him, and why Archangel were blaming him for what had happened. The deaths of many of their people were his fault. He should have ended Vail centuries ago, before things had gotten this far. He could have met Olivia under different circumstances and as a different man from the one who had left her open to attack, and had brought death and suffering to her people. All because he had panicked. His guard had slipped and he had realised it too late to stop Olivia from capturing his heart.

She had stated her feelings quite clearly to her friend.

Olivia didn’t want to be his mate.

So there was little point in considering what his life would be like if she were his, yet thoughts of a future together had plagued him for the past two days, and fear she would reject him stole his voice whenever they were alone.

Olivia’s friend Sable had taken to sparring with Bleu whenever Olivia didn’t need him for the tests she had needed to run again due to losing all of her data in the fire. Loren thought that Sable was doing it to keep Bleu occupied, giving Loren time alone with Olivia, but he couldn’t understand why she would do such a thing. It didn’t make sense. She had offered to kill both him and Bleu several times since they had met. Sable would never desire to help him with Olivia.

It was a lost cause anyway.

Olivia was working harder than ever to find a way to break their bond and had demanded he order his men to do the same. She wanted it broken.

That left him hollow inside.

A cold space opened behind his breastbone whenever he thought about Olivia succeeding in finding a way to undo what had happened and parting ways with him.

What future awaited him if that happened and if he killed Vail?