Vita ate in silence as Deak watched her with patient eyes. The food made her feel better, but she was taking her time and trying to delay the inevitable. Deak smirked as he watched his mate take her sweet time; he knew what she was doing. “How’s the food?” he asked her.

She nodded, covering her mouth, “It’s delicious, thank you.”

Deak smiled as he pulled the empty plate from his mate and placed it on the cart. He turned back to her, giving her his undivided attention, “Now, Vita, care to explain why you think you’re not the right mate for me?” he asked in a calm but firm tone.

Vita gulped as she tried to get her thoughts straight on why she felt like this. She knew he was already going through enough stuff, and now he had to deal with his mate’s insecurities.

“I don’t know; things just feel different between us right now. Earlier, you left me behind while you handled things with the faction council, you ignored all my calls and texts, I didn’t know where you were, and you ended up fighting in a cage match. I can’t believe you told Marco where you were before telling me,” she exclaimed.

Deak sat there quietly and listened.

“I know the curse is getting worse for you, but you push me away and tell me everything’s fine. But it’s not fine, is it?”

Deak sat back on the couch and rested his arm across the back of the sofa. He gently brushed his fingers against Vita’s skin, yearning for the electric connection that bounced between them. He was willing to accept the consequences for only a single touch.

Vita moved her arm so that Deak couldn’t reach her. Deak snarled at the rejected movement and glared at Vita. “I’m willing to take on the pain this curse puts on me for a moment of your touch. If you were not meant to be mine, this thing,” he pointed to the dark rope wrapped around his wrist, “would be nothing more than an ornament. So, yes, Vita, you are the right mate for me. I will take this pain for both of us day and night until it consumes me, and kills me; if we can’t find a cure,” he swore.

Tears streaked down Vita’s cheeks as she heard the promise that Deak gave her. She didn’t want him to suffer for her. She wanted to wrap her hands around his face and yell at him that this wasn’t how she wanted him to live. She didn’t feel like she was worth it. Why would he endure so much pain to be with her? Vita was still damaged and didn’t see herself as someone worth the fight for. She just shook her head in disbelief.

Deak leaned forward, and it was him instead that wrapped his hands around Vita’s head as he made her look at him. “Tell me, tell me what’s going through your head right now. I can tell you are thinking about bad things. Tell me,” he demanded.

Vita continued to shake her head as she tried to pull away from Deak’s grip.

He closed his eyes and sucked in a deep breath; he pleaded with himself and his wolf to try to embrace any power they had left to learn what his mate was thinking. Only darkness stood in front of him. Deak’s heart started to panic as he pulled Vita into his arms. “My Vita, please, I’m begging you, please, tell me what venom you are feeding yourself to think you’re not right for me.”

Vita couldn’t admit all the horrible voices that circled her mind and tormented her daily. The vile things that Tristan told her had taken residence and stayed with her over the years.

“I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what’s wrong,” he begged. His hands burned from the touch, but he refused to let go. Deak wasn’t giving up; he would help Vita fight whatever demons she was fighting inside her.

Vita broke down and confessed, “That’s it, Deak. You have so many things you have to deal with. You shouldn’t have to pick up the pieces of your broken mate and put her back together. I’m damaged, Deak. I’m not good enough for you. I’m not good enough.”

Deak looked at Vita with wild eyes; he didn’t know whether to be angry with her for saying horrid things about herself or heartbroken that she didn't believe in them after all they had been through. Deak pulled his hands back and sat there, not knowing what to say to fix this.

Vita curled into a ball and rocked herself as she let the tears stream down. The voices in her head were at it again, reminding her that she wasn’t worth it. Soon Deak would see her for who she truly was and reject her, leaving her alone with no one to love her.

Deak didn’t let his eyes off Vita as he watched her break down right before him. It was then a thought came to him. Deak positioned himself on the couch just like Vita, curled into a ball as much as he could, and started to rock back and forth as she did.

“My Vita, does this mean…. you don’t love me?” Deak asked her in a broken voice.

Vita stopped rocking, looked up at Deak, and nearly paled. Her heart stopped as she watched her man curl up in the same position she had been, questioning her love for him.

“What?”

“You don’t love me,” he repeated.

Vita crawled across the couch to him with anger in her eyes and rage in her voice, “You listen to me, Deak. I never said I didn’t love you. I have fallen so completely in love with you that it pains me when you leave me almost an entire day without knowing where you are or what you are doing. I was worried sick that something bad had happened to you, and I wouldn’t know cause I don’t have a lycan or wolf that connects us that way. I have connected with you in ways I have never connected with anyone else. I’m scared that I love you more than you will ever love me, and one day you will no longer want me, and you will leave me.”

Deak reached out, pulled Vita into his lap, and wrapped his arms around her. “The feeling is mutual, Vita. Why can’t you see that?”

Vita shook her head and shrugged. “I don’t know, I guess the words don’t sink in,” she confessed.

Deak turned Vita’s head to the side and whispered in her ear in a low husky tone. “Listen to me, Vita. When this is all over, and I am rid of this curse, I will finish our bond and marry you. I will remind you, every day for the rest of our lives, that you are the only woman I want to spend the rest of my life with; I love you, my Vita.” He paused for a moment and then finished, “Mindig is szeretni foglak (I will never stop loving you).”