Fanged Love - Kylie Gilmore Page 0,49
I will have to accept making Stella mine, and I cannot have that. Stella is meant to be human—beautiful, kind, delicate. “No. Impossible.”
“Ohmygod. Why are you always so stubborn, Boz?”
“It is in my nature. Just as asking ridiculous questions is in yours.”
Neli rolls her eyes. “I’m telling you, she’s the one. Think about it. You get all flustered when she’s around. You think she smells and tastes like a virgin, but I’ve yet to meet a twenty-two-year-old woman who’s that hot and hasn’t managed to get laid.”
The thought of her with another man makes my blood boil.
“See!” Neli points a finger in my face. “You’re getting jealous right now, aren’t you? I said she’s not a virgin, and you jumped to thinking about some other guy boning her.”
“No. No. I thought of another man having sex with her.” Why would Stella require additional bones? She was born perfect. “And this is not proof of her being my mate.”
Neli grips my forearm. “Boz,” she says sternly, “you woke up almost immediately after I spotted Stella arriving home from college with all those boxes piled up in her parents’ car. It’s a sign.”
“And?” I push.
“I’m not stupid.”
“Yes, I am aware you have your moments of male-like intelligence, but I fail to see your point.”
Neli’s face turns a bitter shade of red. “I know about the witch. I know about her curse.”
Oh. That. I vowed never to think of Olga or the curse again. Reliving unpleasant memories are of no use to me. “Then, if you are aware of her curse, you know that it was a farce—a ruse.”
“She cursed you to sleep until ‘a woman came into your life, capable of breaking your heart.’”
“That is not exactly what she said. And, trust me, I was there when the curse was exacted.” Many years had passed since I overcame my forest-hag phobia, but I still felt a lingering unease around witches. And what better way to overcome a fear than to immerse one’s self in it. So I decided to pursue Olga, and we became lovers. Very briefly. Until she began asking me to kill her enemies and I realized her interest in me was a self-serving power grab. Yes, she claimed to love me too, but I believe she was simply enthralled by my massive cock. I could not fault her for that, but I could for her attempts to manipulate me. When I informed her it was over and that I would never do her bidding, she told the town that I had taken all of the virgins, of every age, and eaten them. In truth, she kidnapped them, ate their toes, and boiled their kneecaps into a broth, which she served that very evening to the town’s poor while she spun her lies.
I should have listened to Mother about hags.
The next evening, the village’s peasants came looking to burn my castle—all right, looking to burn everything in it. Stone is very difficult to ignite. I explained the situation to them, holding nothing back. Yes, I did enjoy my virgins, but I would never take the children. The peasants took me at my word, as I had never lied to them in the past, and they turned on the witch. When Olga saw that her plan to ruin me had failed, she stormed my castle and laid a curse:
“Prince Bozhidar, I curse you to sleep until a woman is born who will teach you humility and kindness, whose beauty is so majestic, it will bring you to your knees. She will break your heart, and you will feel the misery, same as I.”
“That is a bit harsh, do you not think?” I said. “We only fucked a few times, and it was quite underwhelming.”
I believe that was the part that pissed her off the most. Apparently, she enjoyed the sex. The underwhelming perception came from me and me alone. Oops. The point to all this is that Olga knocked me out, and I awoke five hundred years later to the day.
“So what does any of that mean?” Neli asks after I relay the exact wording of the curse. “Why do you think I’m wrong about Stella?”
I lift my chin with confidence. “It is far more likely that Olga’s magic simply expired rather than Stella being the woman who was born to wreck me.”
“Go on.” Neli swirls her index finger through the air. “I’m listening.”
“Stella grew up in that house right across the road from us. Why did I only just wake