It took a moment for Zoe’s eyes to adjust.
Friend? He said they were only friends? Whatever happened to mate?
Calm down. I'm reading way too much into this.
The doctor pointed towards the couch. “Would you be more comfortable there?”
“No, I think I’ll sit.” She flopped down in a chair, eye to eye with the doctor. She crossed her arms across her chest.
The woman pursed her lips. “Of course, dear, please do. How about we just chat for a moment, and get to know one another?”
Oh hell, this was not going to end well.Zoe leaned back into the chair, maintained eye contact, and tried not to grit her teeth.
“Let’s start on similar ground. How do you know Jack?” The woman spoke way too pleasantly and watched Zoe’s face far too intently.
“He’s my mate,” She blurted out, feeling a smug sense of satisfaction when the therapist’s eyes went wide.
“Surely you’re mistaken.” She looked Zoe over from head to toe, much like people viewed Nan with her tattoos. Horror and revulsion flashed across the woman’s picture perfect face. A condescending sneer appeared briefly and faded just as fast.
“Don’t think I could be mistaken about that, do you?” She’d had enough of Miss Prissy-witch.
“But, Jack is…I mean…” The doctor stood and closed the office door, putting her back to Zoe and tried unsuccessfully to regain her composure. “We all assumed he was too powerful. That he was eventually going to settle for a love match.”
“Is there a problem that I should know about?” Zoe clenched and unclenched her fists. What was this woman’s problem?
“I’m just curious. Where are you from? What clan?” Doctor Framingham stayed on the other side of the room.
“What does that have to do with anything?”
The woman was practically in tears. Slowly, she crossed the room and sat down heavily in her black leather chair. Her face had gone ashen and her lower lip trembled.
Shit, this was certainly not going as planned.
“I’m sorry. This is totally inappropriate. Of course I won’t bill you. Please go.” Doctor Framingham waved her hand at her, indicating she was dismissed.
No way. She wasn’t going anywhere until the woman explained herself. Zoe had a bad feeling she knew where this was going, but she needed to hear it for herself.
“Are you and Jack, like, a thing?” She held her breath.Was Jack playing the field behind her back?
“We hook up occasionally. On and off. I just always thought, we might, well, get back together, eventually.” The woman’s eyes watered and her breath came in a little hiccup. “When he called me about you, I thought he had forgiven me, and he was willing to try again. I had no idea–”
She didn’t need to hear the rest.What the fuck? What was all that bullshit about mating for life?
Zoe got slowly to her feet. She felt stiff, old, completely worn out.
Damn him all to hell.She was a fool for ever believing she could trust him, or anyone for that matter.
She’d been right about him, and about all men. They took what they wanted and left a shattered shell in their wake. Jack used women for sex, spit them out in tiny pieces, and left them bereft, and in her case, pregnant.
Crushing sadness replaced her initial anger.
She walked stiffly to the elevator. Her entire body had gone numb. Jack’s chauffer would be waiting in the lobby. What was she going to do? She couldn’t go back to Jack’s apartment. Not yet, not until she’d processed everything. Without a second thought, she turned on her heals and found the stairwell.
By the time she reached the lobby, tears she hadn’t even known she had formed wet trails down her cheeks. She brushed them away roughly. Seeing Hands pacing by the elevator bay, she darted across the atrium and pushed through the heavy doors.
She hailed the first cab she saw and jumped in, giving the driver the directions to Nan’s apartment. Pulling her hood over her head, she crumpled back against the torn faux leather seat. Drawing a deep breath, she clenched her teeth and pushed back the sob that threatened to escape her throat.
Self-disgust filled her, burning a path straight to her soul. Never again. She’d promised herself to never let a man hurt her. And yet she’d trusted him. Given herself to him. In return, he’d tossed his ex-lover in her face. Worse, he’d expected her to share her deepest, darkest nightmares with a woman he uses to fuck.
