MARIUS

"Well, well… So your neurons work for more than just stealing and betraying." She suddenly looked up, and I could see that all-too-familiar shade of red.

"Ho… how is that possible?" A tree behind me stopped my retreat.

"Did you really think I’d give you a weapon without a safety? A power developed by my father over millennia, only to be used by a traitor like you."

She gripped the dagger tightly in her closed fist. Only a few meters separated us, and I feared the worst.

I admit fear took over my soul, knowing that Victoria was controlling her.

"You talk about deceit, but you were the first to lie to me, to give me hope only to roll around with that beast. You deceived me until the very last moment!" I roared back, outrage and a storm of emotions raging in my chest.

"Oh, drop the heartbroken man act, please. I’m controlling the woman you murdered with your own hands! You sacrificed your own mate, and the Goddess does not forgive that!"

She shouted at me with a blend of several v