A waiter approaches and I take the chance to bolt for the ladies’ room. I throw myself into one of the stalls, tears stinging in my eyes.
The doorwhumphsopen seconds later and I catch my sister’s bright lemon-and-gardenia scent as she steps into the ladies’ room.
“Juniper?”
She doesn’t ask if I’m okay, because she knows I’m not.
“I… I just need a moment.”
She must hear the tears in my voice, because she crosses the bathroom, her heels clicking on the marble floor, as she comes to stand outside my stall. “He talks to you like he owns you.”
For the first time since my designation revealed, the sister who told me she wished I wasn’t part of our family actually sounds like she cares.
“Hewillown me once we’re mated.”
Willow seems to consider my response for a moment. “He’s often cruel to you, isn’t he?”
“Yes,” I whisper, just loud enough for her superior alpha hearing to pick up.
She sighs, and she’s… frustrated? Upset? I can’t tell from the way her floral scent sharpens, and can’t cast out the images Rad put in my mind long enough to glean her feelings with my affinity. She flips the water on at the sink. “Cry if you need to,” she says softly, the running water all but drowning out her words. “Or do what you must. You won’t be heard. I’ll be just outside.”
Do what I must? Does she know? Does she know how I’ve hidden my burner phone in the torn lining of my handbag? That what I need now, more than anything, is to hear the voice of one of my men to banish thoughts of their brutal ends from my mind? Saints, is she giving meprivacy? And if she is… why?
The moment I hear the door close behind her, I fish my phone from my purse and tap out a quick text.
>
>
I hit Luca's number and though I had intended to be silent, the moment I hear his rough voice at the other end of the line, the dam breaks, and I let out a choked sob.
“Oh, Junie,” he murmurs. “You’re with him, aren’t you?”
His voice softens some of my terror and my tears burst forth.
“You’re almost free of him, princess. I promise. Summer is almost over. Just another month and you’ll be back at Fairhaven. Back in my arms. Back on my bike with me. We’ll cover the whole island when you get back. We’ll finally go up to Marmora’s Point, and when the leaves turn, I’ll take you to Briac’s Glen. Saints, but you’ll love it. I know you will. Fuck, I’ve missed you so damn much, Juniper.”
He says my name, love and reverence in every syllable, and it washes away some of the disgust I felt when Rad said it.
“I promise you, we’re making up for every single moment we’ve been apart. I love you, Juniper. So fucking much. I don’t know how, but we’ll stop this. You won’t mate that sack of shit. I promise. Because you aremine.”
I let my head fall back to rest against the cool tile and let out a shuddering breath, wishing I could tell Luca everything. That our love for each other is just another weapon Rad will raise against us. But Luca is too many weeks and too many miles away, and while his voice is the balm that soothes the sharpest shards of fear piercing my heart, it’s not enough. It won’t be enough until I can fall apart in his arms and cry until I have no tears left, until I feel his lips on my forehead, his tattooed hands raking through my hair.
“Juniper?” Willow calls through the door and I swallow hard, scrubbing the tears from my cheeks with the back of my hand.
“Yours,” I whisper. We’re silent for a moment, together and apart in a way that makes my heart ache. Finally, I draw in a deep breath and tap to end the call.
A text comes through right away.
>
My alpha is right. I can’t let Rad break me. I need to stay strong. I can. I will.
I must.
Because this courtship willneverresult in a mating.
CHAPTER2
