Page 39 of Crimson Heart

“We have to tell him about us.”

“I think we should wait a bit,” Byron said hesitantly.

“Why? Are you not sure about us?” The thought gave her a sharp pinch in her side.

“Of course, I’m sure about us.” He turned her in his arms, pulling her face-to-face. “Don’t ever think that. But it can’t have escaped you that Jude doesn’t like me. In fact, he can’t stand me. And to be honest, I don’t like him much either.”

She met his gaze, contemplating his words for a moment, not sure how to respond.

“If it were just up to me, I’d mate with you right now,” Byron stated.

“You would?”

He pulled her closer. “Babe, I would do it in a heartbeat. But Jude will make our lives hell if we mate behind his back.”

“Well, then we have to tell him now, before he finds out about us some other way. Trust me, I can handle my brother. He’ll be angry for a little while, but he won’t stand in my way. He mated for love. He can’t deny me the very thing he took for himself.”

“It’ll be a hard nut to swallow. He’ll try to turn you against me. Tell you things that make you feel differently about me.” A frown built on his forehead.

She put a palm on his cheek and her other hand on his nape.

“I’ll never feel different about you,” she promised.

“You say that now, and you mean it, but you can’t know that…” He sighed. “Jude and I have butted heads more than once. I challenged him to a fight when I found out that he’d mated with Danielle and had snubbed Eve. There’s been bad blood between us. He won’t forget that. I’m on his shit list. And frankly, he’s on mine too. He accused me of being behind the attempt on Danielle’s life right after they’d mated, when it turned out later that it was Cameron who’d planned all this before his death. I’m still waiting for that apology.”

She pressed a soft kiss to his lips. “I’m sorry, baby. He can be infuriating sometimes. But deep down, he’s a good man. He’s honest, and he’s just. And he loves me. In the end, he’ll give in, because he wants me to be happy. And I’ll only be happy with you.”

“Give me a couple of days to work up enough courage to confront him,” Byron suggested.

She chuckled. “Courage? Byron, you have all the courage you’ll ever need. It takes a lot of courage to challenge an alpha to a fight⁠—”

“A fight I didn’t win,” he interrupted.

“Because it wasn’t really your fight. It was Eve’s.” She pressed her hand over his heart. “This is your fight, your love, your heart. That’s why you’ll win.”

“We will win,” he corrected her.

“Yes,” she murmured, before Byron pressed his lips to hers and kissed her.

He shifted in the tub, pulling her fully on top of him. She heard water sloshing out of the tub onto the tile floor, but it didn’t matter. All she wanted right now was to be in his arms, to feel his love and tenderness, and to know that they had a future together.

“Take your fucking paws off my sister!”