For a week, he’s been trying to push me away. Tonight, he showed me that he doesn’t care about me, and he’s been lying all this time.
Sniffing back the tears that threaten to spill from my eyes, I try to remain as numb as possible to my decision to leave. I’ll deal with the repercussions of this failed mate bond later.
For now, I just need to get out so I don’t have to face him. Shaking my head with disappointment in myself, I pull the strap of the duffel bag over my shoulder and drag my feet back down the stairs. Thankfully, he hasn’t come back, and I’m able to make a quiet exit from his house.
I wasn’t in the mood for another fight, too exhausted from the extensive training and wielding of my powers to perfect the traps to capture the demon. After successfully catching one and sending it back to the underworld, Aurora, Yvonne, and I have been doing everything in our power to have as many traps ready as possible.
I’d been working harder just to prove myself to Brooks, but it was all in vain. I don’t know why I was trying so hard when he was so quick to tell me to stop, as if he didn’t appreciate a single thing I did.
His true colors came out in the end, and I was just the fool who couldn’t see through the illusion before.
But I see things clearly now, and I won’t be forced into this mate bond with him if it means I lose my sense of self again.
Dragging my feet through the stone and dirt paths that make up the web of the residential area of the south side of the village, I find my way toward the edge of the forest where my old cottage lies. Shrouded in darkness, the place appears as abandoned as my heart feels right now, but I push through the gloomy feeling settling over my bones as I climb the porch and unlock my door.
I haven’t visited the cottage in weeks, almost as if I were running away from my past in the hopes that I would forge a newfuture with Alpha Brooks. As soon as I step inside, the musty smell of the cottage hits me like a punch in the gut, a reminder of that past.
It wasn’t just the past with Brooks I was running from, but also the past in which my mother died while I was a young teen, and I was left to fend for myself. I was strong for so long, and I don’t want to be strong anymore.
If only Mom were still alive, I’d be able to question her about my gifts, our heritage, and how I’m the one who inherited magic powers. Maybe she would have had the answers, maybe she wouldn’t.
Nonetheless, she would have had arms that would offer me comfort and soothe the pain in my heart. The absence of those arms is a heavy weight that pushes me to my knees, confined to the darkness surrounding me that soon becomes an abyss of loneliness, pulling at me with treacherous tendrils and drawing out my sobs.
Keeled over my knees, I weep into my trembling hands as vivid memories flash through my mind: Brooks and the times we shared together, moments of bonding that I truly believed in, and those nights of passionate trysts when I thought our connection went beyond the constraints of the fated mate bond.
We had nothing, it seems, and now I’m left nursing a broken heart, all because I allowed him to affect me like this.
If I felt nothing but hatred for him as I did before, I wouldn’t be in this inconsolable situation right now.
A knock on the door jolts me out of my misery, but turns it stronger when I become fearful that it might be Brooks on my porch. A small flicker of hope lends me the strength to get to my feet, but I push it away so I don’t get disappointed.
Why would Brooks come looking for me after that fight? He clearly doesn’t care about me at all, and he let me walk away without saying a word to stop me.
I’m proven right when I open the door to find an older, kinder face staring back at me. Portia swallows her smile when she notices the tears on my face, and she instantly steps forward and pulls me into her arms.
“Oh, honey…” she soothes as I drop my head on her shoulder, too exhausted to pretend that I’m okay. Gentle, consoling pats on the back of my head allow me to feel safe to cry in the arms of the woman who’d been my greatest supporter when I wanted to join the clinic as a healer, and even vouched for me when Alpha Elias was deciding if I could work there.
When I’ve cried all the tears I needed to release, I lift my head and offer her a feeble, thankful smile.
“I’m sorry, Portia.” I apologize as I wipe the tears streaming down my cheeks. “You didn’t have to see that.”
“Well, I’m glad I did,” she assures me as she takes my hand and gives it a gentle squeeze. “I’m glad I heard some movement in the cottage, or I wouldn’t have known you were here.”
I nod as I step aside. “Do you wanna come inside?”
Portia walks in, then heads to the kitchen, turning on the light and preparing tea for the two of us. She does everything with a sense of familiarity, which speaks to all the years she spent in her neighbor’s house, sharing countless pots of tea with my mother when she was still alive.
“So tell me, honey,” she begins as she pours the boiled water into cups prepared with the tea herbs from the cabinet. “Why are you back here?”
I sigh as she brings the cups over, pulling mine forward and breathing in the aroma of chamomile, mint, and honey, a wave of comfort washing over me.
“I needed to come back home,” I whisper before taking a sip of the herbal tea.
“But is ‘home’ really a place, or is it a person?”
I look up to meet Portia’s hazel eyes, feeling as if she’s seeing right through me.
It doesn’t come as a surprise, since Portia has been our neighbor since before I was born. She’s the kindest soul I know, the first she-wolf who didn’t treat me like an outsider, even after both my parents were gone. But it’s still unnerving to have to mull over the question, a tiny voice inside my head whispering the answer.
