The moment of truth had arrived, and Ruth was terrified. Elated, but also so anxious that her hands started trembling and tears misted her eyes. Nick was going to hate her for deceiving him and for orchestrating his transition without asking him first.

He might eventually forgive her, but he would never trust her again.

“Talk to me, Ruth. You’re scaring the shit out of me. Am I dying?”

She chuckled. “No, and you never will. Well, provided you stay safe and don’t let anyone with a sword anywhere near you.”

Nick pushed himself higher on the bed and reached for her hand. “Now I’m worried about you. Did you take something for your nerves?” Then another thought occurred to him. “Maybe it’s an allergic reaction. We should call Doctor Julian back. Or better yet, the other one, Bridget.”

Fates, where to start? At the end or at the beginning?

“I’m not crazy, and I’m not on anything. I’m an immortal, and now so are you. You weren’t sick, Nick. You were transitioning. In a short while, you’ll feel a lot of pain in your gums and in your throat because you’ll start growing fangs and venom glands.”

Nick looked at her with a mixture of worry and pity in his eyes, but then he touched a hand to his throat. “It hurts.”

“Julian will have to give you something to manage the pain, but otherwise you can go back to work in a day or two.”

He shook his head. “I still don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”

“Please don’t hate me,” she whispered, looking away as tears misted her vision. “I didn’t have a choice. It was either doing it without your knowledge or risking your freedom.”

“Come here,” he said softly as he pulled on her hand. “Lie next to me and tell me everything from the start.”

Nick’s cautious tone implied that he still thought she was insane. Once he heard the whole story, though, he would no longer think that. Instead, he would think of her as deceitful and manipulative and probably kick her out of his bed.

But until then, she was going to enjoy his closeness.

Before, she hadn’t dared to climb into bed with him because of all the wires. But now they were irrelevant.

Cuddling up to Nick, Ruth put her head on his chest and threw her arm over his middle. “I know this is hard to believe. I’ll start from the beginning, and once you hear the whole story you’ll believe me. If not, we can call Julian in here and ask him to show you his fangs.”

“So he is an immortal too? Fascinating. And what about the other doctor? The one with the big boobies?” He was mocking her.

Worse, he’d noticed Bridget’s cleavage even though he was barely conscious.

Typical man.

“She is Julian’s mom.” That should cool down his enthusiasm.

“Unbelievable.”

Fates, he was starting to annoy her with his ‘I’m talking to a crazy woman’ attitude. “Shut up, Nick, and listen. Keep your comments and questions until I’m done.”

“Okay, no need to get all pissy.”

“You would be pissy too if I looked at you as if you were nuts.”

“True. I’m sorry. I’m going to keep my mouth shut from now on.”

“Thank you.”

The longer she talked, the stiffer he became next to her, the hand rubbing small circles on her back falling down to the bed.

When she was done telling him the history of her people, including the secret war they’d been waging with their enemies since antiquity, Nick let out a long breath.

“How long did you suspect that I was a dormant carrier of your godly genes?”

This was the hardest part of the reveal.

Telling Nick about the history of gods and immortals, explaining the biological differences between them and humans, including Dormants and transition, all of that had been relatively easy. But telling him that everyone around him had been keeping secrets and lying to him was going to be brutal.

“Eva suspected that you were special from the moment she met you, same as she suspected Tessa and Sharon. Who, by the way, transitioned before you.”

“So she was an immortal even then? Bhathian didn’t induce her transition?”

Nick’s quick mind had apparently processed all the information she’d fed him over the past hour. He didn’t need anything explained twice or simplified, which was a relief.

“Eva knew she was an immortal, but she didn’t know how or why. She must’ve encountered a random immortal who induced her without realizing that she was a Dormant. She met Bhathian sometime after transitioning, but before realizing that she was no longer human. They hooked up for one night, and it resulted in Eva getting pregnant, which is quite miraculous given it was a one-time thing. Nathalie is their daughter from that encounter, not her cousin.” Like Sylvia was her daughter and not her sister, but Ruth was saving the biggest shocker for last.

“I get it, and it all kind of makes sense, but I can’t believe this was all right under my nose and I didn’t notice anything.” He rubbed his jaw. “I remember thinking that Eva was an odd bird for babying us even though she was too young for that. I thought she was not that much older than Sharon.”

He smiled. “I’ve also noticed that Tessa looked good, but I thought it was Jackson’s doing. He was good to her. And Sharon didn’t change at all.”

“I think it’s normal. You had no reason to look for anomalies.”

“Yeah, like your bat hearing and your strength. It was easy to accept your explanations because they fit my worldview.”

Ruth was starting to breathe easier. Nick didn’t seem angry or even overly shaken up, but then he hadn’t heard the punch line yet.

He turned toward her and looked into her eyes. “I just don’t understand why you felt like you had to keep all of this a secret from me. Don’t you know that I love you? I would’ve never told anyone about you or the clan. I would never do anything to endanger you.”

“Not intentionally. But as long as you were human, information could’ve been extracted from you. The clan has a very strict policy about this. The only reason I was allowed to have a relationship with you at all was that you were a suspected Dormant.”

Turning to lie on his back, Nick appeared to be mulling over all that he’d learned, as long moments passed. When he spoke, his tone was cold. “Is that why you are with me? Because you knew there was a chance I was a Dormant? I must’ve been quite a catch for you.”

Dear Fates, she’d expected Nick to ask a lot of questions, and she’d prepared many elaborate answers while waiting for him to transition, but none included anything about this. The concept was so foreign to her that it had never crossed her mind that Nick might think she didn’t really love him.

How could he be so blind? Wasn’t it evident that she was crazy about him?

Lifting her head, Ruth cupped his cheek and forced him to look at her. “I’m with you because I love you, you stupid lug. I didn’t want to be with anyone, mortal or immortal, but you kept insisting and chipping at my resistance until I gave in, and I’m glad I did. You’re the best thing that has ever happened to me.”

Well, that wasn’t entirely true.

She looked away. “Well, it's the second best thing that has happened to me,” she murmured.

Hooking a finger under her chin, he asked the inevitable question, “If I’m the second best thing, who or what is the first?”

“Sylvia.”

He arched a brow. “Your sister?”

“My daughter.”

In the silence that followed, Nick’s mouth fell agape. “Sylvia is your daughter,” he said after a long moment.

“Yes.”

“How old are you, Ruth?”

“I’m fifty-six.”