Chapter 579

Keeping his stride even, Lucien ignored the request. For a moment, Vassa said nothing. He was not taking this woman into the space he shared with his mate. He was not taking Vassa anywhere near that place; it was sacred. Something shifted in Lucien, rising in him, and he was forced to bite back a snarl. Protectiveness moved through him, wanting to defend his home, and his mate. Vassa was looking at him, but appeared not to notice anything. Lucien looked away from her, trying to force himself to calm down, trying to regulate his heartbeat and control his breathing and the urge to do something he knew he would regret.

"Well?" Vassa asked, "Show it to me?"

"No." the word was snarled out and he heard her small huff.

"Why not?" she asked, "It's only a garden…"

"I literally just told you it is not only a garden." He replied, finally able to look at her again. "I told you how important it is, and what it represents. The fact that it is of value to me is the only reason you want to see it. If you think that I am taking you into a space that belongs to me and my mate, you ate sorely mistake, Vassa."

She had stopped walking and was looking up at him with wide blue eyes. "I want to see it because it is where you live…"

"This whole Court is where I live. You have the palace to explore and the city beyond."

"But somewhere that is just yours…"

"There's no such place." He said, "Not anymore. Everything that I have is shared with Elain." Vassa rolled her eyes and Lucien shook his head at her. "You are mortal." He told her, "You do not understand what it is to have found one's mate."

"I get the concept." She replied tartly.

"Not the same."

Vassa reached out then, laying her hand against his forearm. "We used to talk." She said gently, "A lot… and about everything…"

"That is what friends do." He said.

"Didn't it mean anything to you?"

"Yes." He replied, "I appreciated having a friend who would listen… Tam threw me out of the Spring Court. I didn't have a home…"

"You did when you came to live with us…"

"For a time." He said, "It was never going to be permanent…"

"I guess I missed that…"

"I apologise, Vassa." He said, "If you thought it was anything more than it was."

"What you let me believe."

"What?" Lucien frowned, "I had no idea what you believed." He said, "I was mated when we met. I even spoke to you of Elain, often. I told you how much it hurt that she seemed to want nothing to do with me. I told you I feared that she never would."

"Yes." She said, stepping closer, "Letting me know that the silly mating bond was of no importance. She didn't want you… and I did."

Blinking, Lucien stepped back. "No…" he said slowly, "I thought I was sharing with a friend…"

"It was more than friendship." Vassa said, moving forward again and reaching out to grab Lucien's wrist. "You came to live with me, for months, telling me that some female you barely knew had no interest." She smiled at him, "But I knew you. I know you well. We got along so wonderfully…"

Lucien was just about frozen to the spot. He'd had no idea that Vassa's interest in him had run so deeply, or that he had done anything to encourage it at all. He had always thought that he was such a good judge of character, and that he could read others and their motivations clearly. He had no clue about this. Granted, he thought, he had been under considerable stress and consumed in his confusion and grief over what he had perceived as disinterest from Elain and he had expected the mating bond to be rejected. In his months living with Vassa, Lucien knew that his mind had not been the clearest or sharpest. "We…" he blinked, not knowing what to say.

"We could still be wonderful." She said, stepping closer again, one hand going to his waist, sliding around toward his back. Blue eyes looked up at him. "I could stay… here…" she said, "Think about the time we could have here…"

"Vassa…" Lucien said, trying to sound firm, but not harsh. If this was his fault, he did not want to be harsh. "I am a mated male."

"That wasn't your choice." She said, "You didn't choose that." She smiled, "But you can choose me."

"I chose Elain." He said, "She nor I chose for the bond to connect us." He removed Vassa's hand from himself, "But we have chosen to accept it, we have chosen one another for the rest of our lives. We have chosen our life together. I would choose her again and again, out of every being in this world."

"But…" She shook her head, "I don't understand…"

"I find that difficult to believe." He said, moving away from her.

"I can find a way!" Vassa called after him. "I have been reading a lot on magic." Lucien turned to look at her over his shoulder, his metallic eye clicking as he took in the twisted determined look on her face, "Trying to find some spell to break my curse has led me to read a lot of different types of books. I could make you choose me…"

"Go home, Vassa." Lucien muttered before turning away and leaving the garden.