What kind of a woman does that?
How are you okay with this?
He wasn't okay with it. He was the opposite of okay. But he'd be damned if he was going to stand here and let this beautiful woman feel sorry for him.
"I moved out," he said, straightening his spine and meeting her eyes directly. "It was my choice. I wasn't willing to settle for being someone's second choice." He shrugged, aiming for casual and probably missing by a mile. "Tula didn't love me. She was never going to love me. I'd rather be alone than compromise on anything less than everything."
That was such a lie. He'd been willing to compromise if she had, but Tula wanted Esag, and that was it. He'd become yesterday's news.
Shira studied him for a long moment, her green eyes assessing. "You are absolutely right. I wouldn't have been willing to compromise for anything less than everything either."
"Even if you were pregnant with that less-than-everything guy's child?"
"Of course. Most of the clan females have raised their children alone. We can't get too close to humans and risk exposure."
"I'm human."
"But you were already exposed. That's different."
He knew what she meant, so there was no point in dwelling on something that was out of his control.
The line moved forward, and Shira moved with it, gesturing for him to come stand beside her. "Did you love her?"
The question caught him off guard. "Maybe," he admitted. "I thought I did. But now I'm not so sure. She's stunningly beautiful, and she's feisty, which is something I'm attracted to, but our relationship always seemed to be lacking in some way. I never felt the deep emotional connection that I expected to feel for the woman I fell in love with. Does that make sense to you?"
"Perfectly. That's the elusive thing we are all searching for. It's the coming home feeling."
"That's it." He looked at her with admiration. "That's the best definition I've heard of what I was looking for. I never felt that with Tula. It was more like sharing a hotel room."
"I've visited many of those." She looked at him apologetically. "They were all human. I'm still hoping that my home will be with an immortal."
"I might be a Dormant." He began filling his plate. "The reasons are mostly circumstantial, but if you believe in the Fates, then you know that things usually happen for a reason. I worked with Kaia before I was abducted to the island, and I even had a crush on her, but she was too young at the time, so I never told her how I felt. Then it turned out that she was a Dormant and became an immortal while I was stuck on an island full of immortals. Too many coincidences. I think the Fates are trying to tell me something."
He didn't know why he was telling Shira all this when they had met only minutes ago. Well, he knew why. He didn't want her to dismiss him as just a human. He wanted her to believe that he had potential.
Shira loaded her plate with an impressive amount of lamb. "I agree that it's too much of a coincidence. You should go for it. You just need to find someone you like to induce you. Anandur is a great guy."
"I've been too busy to think about anything, to be honest. I just got here a week ago, and I immediately started working with Kaia. Thank God for that. Otherwise, I would be thinking all day about Tula leaving me."
"I thought you were the one who left." She added a generous helping of rice and reached for the flatbread.
"I did, but that was after she asked me to sleep in another room."
"Ouch." She smiled at him. "You did the right thing." She started walking toward the tables, and he followed.
Shira led him to a table near the edge of the green where two people were already seated. The woman was beautiful, like all the immortals here, and the guy seemed like the friendly sort.
"Fenella, Din, this is Tony," Shira announced, sliding into the seat beside the dark-haired woman. "Tony, this is Fenella and Din. I hosted Fenella when she first arrived after the clan rescued her from a much worse place than you were rescued from, but it was also part of the evil umbrella of the Brotherhood."
Tony took the seat across from Shira, setting his plate down.
"That was ages ago," Fenella said. Her accent was Scottish, soft and lilting. "Well, not really. It just feels like it, and I'm doing my best to forget that dark part of my life."
"Sorry," Shira said. "But I wanted to point out that you and Tony have this in common. It's always good to have something to talk about."
Fenella glared at her. "I don't want to talk about that."
Shira shrugged. "The clan is in the business of rescuing. Find immortals in trouble, swoop in, bring them to the village, throw a big welcome party. Rinse and repeat."
