The Messenger( Iva) novel Chapter 232

Decission 1-1

Lori’s heart was pounding so hard she was certain he could hear it.

His question hung in the air between them and she had no idea how to answer. Her mind was a storm of contradictions, fear and hope and desire and doubt all swirling together until she couldn’t separate one

from the other.

She took a breath.

“It was unexpected,” she admitted, her voice soft but steady. “I never expected the Messenger to reveal my fated mate. I thought… I thought I would be alone forever or have a chosen mate. That the Goddess had forgotten about me.”

Attia’s dark eyes searched her face. His expression was unreadable.

Before he could respond, before he could say anything that might derail her courage, she turned the question back on him.

“What about you?”

Attia’s eyebrows rose slightly. Surprise flickered across his features-surprise, and something that looked almost like respect.

She had turned the tables on him.

Despite her shaking hands, despite her flushed cheeks, despite the obvious terror that clung to her like a second skin-she had thrown his question back in his face.

“Quick on her feet. Unwilling to be a passive participant in her own fate.” The thought amused.

Attia leaned back in the creaking chair.

“The same,” he said slowly. “Surprised. I had given up on the idea of a fated mate many years ago. I assumed the Goddess had other plans for me.”

Lori’s throat tightened. “And now?”

He was quiet for a moment.

“Now,” he said, “I don’t know what to think.”

Lori’s pulse jumped. She could feel Layla pressing against the surface of her mind, eager and anxious, hanging on every word.

“What now?” Lori asked, daring to push further.

Attia’s gaze held hers. “That depends on what you want as well.”

They were running in circles.

Lori realized it with a flash of frustrated clarity. Both of them were dancing around the question, asking indirect questions, giving careful answers. Neither of them had said, clearly and plainly, whether they wanted this bond… or not.

1/3

Decission L

Whether they wanted each other.

Claim

She could feel the weight of the moment pressing down on her. This was it. This was the conversation that would shape the rest of her life. And if she didn’t speak now-if she didn’t say what she actually meant –she might never get another chance.

Lori took a breath.

Her heart hammered.

She looked at him-at his dark eyes, his strong jaw, the tension in his broad shoulders-and asked the question that had been burning in her chest since the moment Iva told her the truth.

“Do you want me?”

Attia’s breath caught.

His lips parted. His eyes widened. For a single, suspended moment, he looked utterly undone.

Lori realized how her words had sounded. Her face erupted in flames.

“I mean-” she stammered, her voice rising in pitch. “Do you want a fated mate? No-correction-do you want me as your fated mate?” Her voice trembled on the last words. “Or are you planning to reject me?”

The silence that followed was deafening.

Attia’s stomach squeezed.

*Reject her.* The words cut through him like a blade. He saw the fear in her eyes, the vulnerability she was trying so hard to hide, the way her hands were twisted together in her lap as if she was bracing for a blow.

“Honestly,” he said, and his voice came out rougher than he intended, “I don’t know.”

Lori paled.

The color drained from her face so quickly that Attia’s chest clenched with something that felt terrifyingly like panic.

*No,* he thought. *That’s not what I meant.*

He leaned forward, his hands gripping his knees.

“Don’t misunderstand me, please,” he said quickly. “It’s not you. It’s not about you. It’s just… you have to admit that we are not a conventional pair.”

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