I shook my head. “Not anymore. He used to be my favorite person in the whole world. But when the spell broke, it was like his love for me did too. He told me I was a disgusting reminder of my mother, and he didn’t want to be reminded of her ever again. He slammed the door in my face and never talked to me again.”
I blinked the tears back so Abram wouldn’t see the pain I held in. As the queen, I did not get to be weak.
“Little weaver…”
“It’s fine,” I muttered. “Him and Jade had their own daughter. I’m sure he has erased me out of his memory for good.”
I left out the fact that I had spied on my father for years. There was nothing that made me feel better. Time did not heal mywounds. My mother died and left me to clean up her mess. But I thought that with time, maybe my father would come back to me. He must have loved me at one point. How could he just stop so quickly? I thought I could change fate so that I could have him again, but then one day I saw him cradling a baby girl. Him and Jade had been standing outside, and he muttered how perfect she was. How he had never loved anything like he loved her.
Tears fell down my cheeks as I turned my back to Abram. The last time I saw my father, he had been walking down the street with his daughter.
She was getting older and looked similar to me. They were walking up the street toward me, and I thought he would see me and stop. He didn’t. He looked at me and didn’t even linger on me. Either he didn’t recognize me or didn’t want to. That was the most painful moment in my life—watching someone I love pretend not to know me.
I felt like his dirty secret.
The coven had never really felt like home to me either. My mother was so obsessed with my father when I was growing up that I didn’t get much affection from her. And when the coven figured out what she did, it was me they took it out on. No one in this world would care if I disappeared.
“Elowyn.” The pity in Abram’s voice made me feel disgusted with myself.
“I’m tired. It was a long day—getting married and all.” I tried to lighten the mood. “Will you undo the back of my dress so I can change and go to sleep?”
I turned and moved my loose hair out of his way. He was taking too long to say anything, so I looked behind me, and he seemed unsure.
“It doesn’t mean anything, Abe. I just can’t get it off by myself. The women at the coven helped me in it and expected my husband to tear me out of it, or that is how they phrased it.”
Abram nodded and stepped forward. I stared at the small carving on the shelf and smiled at the wooden flower he had carved. My breath held when his hands touched my back, slowly undoing the string of the corset. Abram’s breath fanned over the back of my neck, and my body shivered. The looser the corset became, the more my skin was exposed. I could feel the ghost of his skin brushing against mine and tried not to think anything of it.
He was not mine. But what if he was? The moon sent him to me, and he was looking for his mate. Maybe I was lucky enough to be the one made for him. The thought made my chest ache with hopefulness.
“There you go,” he whispered with a strained voice.
I held the dress to my chest as I turned to face him. My gaze lingered on his face.
“Thank you.”
Would I ever be blessed enough by the heavens to have him? He was the only man who ever caught my attention. There had to be a reason for that—right? Maybe we needed to be around each other more for it to snap into place. Could he love me if he spent enough time around me?
“Goodnight, Abram.”
He turned and headed for the bedroom, but stopped with his back toward me.
“Goodnight, Elowyn.”
Then he closed the door to his room, and I prayed to everything that this was fate working in a mysterious way. Maybe he was my fate.
Chapter 5
Abram
Iwoke up earlier than usual, but I didn’t get out of bed. My gaze moved to the door of my bedroom. Elowyn was on the other side, and something about that felt right.
Wait, no. I need to keep my distance.
Elowyn wasn’t my mate.
She’s my wife.
Fuck, I needed to get out of this house before she woke up. I could keep my emotional distance from her if I didn’t stay close to her. My feet slid onto the warm wooden floor. My body was tense; it had been two days since I accidentally married the woman I had been trying not to give in to.
