Not forever. She’s not gone for good.
Right.
Right. I’d dealt with loss. My father as a toddler, my mother as an adult. The three friends I couldn’t reach in time in the darkness of the collapsed mine. Others whom I loved. I couldn’t lose Stevie.
Calm the fuck down. She’s not gone for good, she just needs some time alone.
Right.
I could understand that, right? I mean, we’d been together non-stop for a week and a half, right? Of course she needed time to process this! Two weeks ago, she didn’t know me, and now we’re Mated and planning a future?—
You’re planning a future. She hasn’t agreed to anything yet.
Oh gods below, was that the truth?
I squeezed my eyes shut and groaned, trying to remember all the discussions we’d had recently about being Mated and building a future together. Stevie had responded tomewith enthusiasm, but she’d said little about my plans. Why?
Read the fucking letter again, you asshole. She told you why.
Right.
I swallowed and forced my head up.
Well, first things first. My Mate was out there, alone and vulnerable, and I needed to get to her and protect her. She could think things through once I knew she was safe and?—
No.
MyKteerrumbled slightly as I stared down at the letter in my hand.
No.
No, that was whatIneeded, not what she needed.
I couldn’t go after her, could I? I needed to allow her to do this alone, tobealone. Alone and strong. I needed to trust her, trust in her abilities. Trust in the fact that she’d kept herself safe for years before I knew her, trusther.
I squeezed my eyes shut again. I couldn’t call her, couldn’t run after her. I needed to trust her to keep herself safe, and trust that I would see her again in New Orleans in a few days.
It’s going to be a long fucking few days.
It was.
I’m not sure how I got through it. For the first time in my life, I didn’t have work to throw myself into, and all my guys were where they were supposed to be, thriving in their own lives. I was useless and anxious and beyond lost.
Not too proud to admit I got drunk a few times, either.
Saturday evening found me sitting on the couch, staring at the dark television. I didn’t even have the will to reachfor the remote… I just sat there, staring at that black square, imagining worst-case scenarios.
Stevie didn’t come home. She didn’t think of this place as home. She didn’t want me, didn’t want what I could offer. She rejected the Mate bond. She?—
No.
No, worst-case scenario was that she was hurt someplace. She was with her father again andhewas hurting her. That she was crying and in pain, and I couldn’t?—
I growled, my throat hurting.
Maybe I could drag my sorry ass to that new gym. Or to the whiskey bottle. I needed a distraction.
Just to prove that the gods love irony, that’s the moment there was a knock at the door.
