CARINA
None of this is real.Maybe if I repeat it enough, it’ll come true.
There is no underground cell within Twilight Grove that I’ve been locked inside after meeting aSeer, of all people, and witnessing the future he possesses. Ryder is definitely not here, with some of his pack—all of whom I ensured were safe and free of this.
And Ryder is definitely not claiming I’m his fated mate.
It’s impossible.
Isn’t it?
Sloane’s clap of her hands ends my brain’s absence, but even returning to focus doesn’t drown out Ryder’s intense stare. The truth drills into my heart, pulling open anything I may have begun feeling for him, and begs me to hand the scraps over.
“Well,” she drawls in her smooth and yet grating voice, “seems like you two need to talk before. I’ll leave you be.”
For once, I’d prefer she stay.
Sloane’s vines transfer the four shifters, three of whom growl, into the empty cage to my right. It’s like I’m watching through a void—or glasses that distort images—as she swings thedoor shut, leaving me in mine and the pack in another. Three begin patting themselves down and completing the pointless ritual of attempting to escape.
One heads for the bars.
Ryder’s arm stretches as far as they allow, stopping a mere inch from my chest. Heat radiates, urging me to step into his touch. Merely a slow rock on my feet would put me in his vicinity. Instead, I lean away.
Dark eyes crumple in despair. “I’m sorry. It wasn’t planned.”
The bite mark on my neck claims otherwise. A person doesn’t accidentally bite another.
“I completed the bond so I could find you and save you, like I promised.”
So itwasplanned. It’s a pointless argument at this rate.
I look away, keep my voice flat. “You shouldn’t have come. This isn’t your fight.”
“You’remy fight.” Ryder smacks the bars. In another life, one where he didn’t lie, those words might affect me. “You’ll get out of here. I swear it.”
Maybe. Maybe not. Do I want to be Dark, even after what Sloane revealed? Hecate, no. But he doesn’t know that.
“I’ve seen what’s coming, and I understand why she’s doing this. You heard her! My future is either beside her or in this cell, but both involve remaining here. You all need to leave and go home. You’ll live your life, and lead your pack, and whenever the Celestial war hits, I promise to do what I can for you.”
“Carina, I’m not leaving you.Ever.”
“Everis a long time to remain in these cells.” I force my tone cold, hiding the way his presence has me wanting to let him hold me. But it might not even be him making me feel this way—maybe it’s the mystical reason for my strange connection to him.
The reason behind my intrigue, and why I stalked him by his pond.
The easy way I believed he’d never truly harm me, and the comfort felt when he held me in his cabin.
The quick way I not only grew to trust, but to like him.
Probably even the reason his entire pack feels more like home than my own home, and why, the instant he was led down here, my headache ceased.
“I don’t want to hear any of it. Not your theories or your explanations or even your reasons. There’s no way out for me, but let me save you. Run and never return. Don’t ever look for me. You’re freed from your matehood, or whatever.” My heart skips a beat at the thought. “You once begged me to run. When your dad was dying, and then afterwards, you begged me to go home and stay alive. You said if I didn’t live my life, you’d kill me yourself. So I’m making the same vow to you now. Go home, find someone else, andlive…or I’ll return with all the Darkness of this coven and kill you.”
And then, finally, I lift my eyes to his. Silver and endless, a promise of so much—and a reminder of what won’t be.
“Carina,” he pleads. “Carina, I can’t. The bond won’t allow me to leave you in danger.”
Right.That.A reminder of everything between us being a lie. That Ryder completed it out of some instinctual need to keep me safe—yet look how well that went.
