She made him forget me in the span of hours. Gods, how easily I was replaced.
“You let me down. Like everyone else in my life,” I said, tears streaming down my cheeks, hot and relentless.
His jaw clenched, the muscle ticking as guilt, frustration, maybe confusion warred in his eyes. Everyone around us had gone silent, staring like we were a tragedy unfolding in slow motion. And maybe we were. My heart felt like it was beingtorn apart piece by piece. He didn’t care enough to remember. I was nothing more than an afterthought—forgotten, just like my father had forgotten me.
“She’s my mate,” he blurted out.
There it was. The final, merciless stab to my heart.
I looked at the beautiful woman beside him. The woman who was acting like he was already hers. The woman who had touched him without hesitation. She smirked at me, dark, triumphant, cruel. Like she wanted me to see exactly what she’d taken.
No, this wasn’t right.
But when I stared at her dark hair, something cold and familiar slid through me. Was this the woman I saw with Abram in his fate?
“No,” I whispered, barely able to breathe. “You belong to me.”
Abram’s eyes filled with tears as I shattered right in front of him. I saw the war inside him—pain, confusion, something deeper he couldn’t grasp—but it didn’t matter. It didn’t change the knife twisting in my chest.
“I… I need time to think,” he said softly, his voice breaking. “My mind is still foggy.”
Silent tears slid down his face as I wiped my own, my hands trembling. Everyone stared at me like they pitied me.
My own parents hadn’t wanted me. My coven couldn’t wait to cast me aside. And now him.
Quickly, before my knees gave out, I turned and headed for the woods, letting the darkness swallow me as I fled. Abram’s fingers curled around my wrist, pulling me back.
“I feel so stupid.”
The words had trembled out of me, raw and humiliating. I couldn’t even look at him. My gaze dropped to the ground because it felt wrong to meet his eyes now, like something sacred had been severed and I no longer had the right. He had a mate.A real mate. And I was nothing but the girl who believed in something that never belonged to her.
“No, you aren’t.”
He sounded desperate, frantic almost, like he felt me slipping. But I couldn’t stay there under his grip, under his pity. I ripped my arms from him, needing distance before I broke entirely.
“Yes, I am. I thought I was your mate.”
The confession burned its way out of me. A truth I had buried so deep because voicing it meant admitting how completely I had given myself to him.
“I truly thought Thomas was wrong.”
His face fell.
“I thought that a bond would snap into place if we were around each other long enough. That you would fall in love with me, that you would see how perfect we are together. I wanted you to love me back,” I said so quietly I wasn’t sure if my voice even carried.
But the way his face shifted told me he heard every single word.He grabbed my arm.
"I love you." I cried softly.
“Elowyn…”
My name fell from his lips drenched in pity, and gods, that hurt worse than anything. Pity was for the foolish. For the naïve. For the girl who didn’t understand her place.
I hated myself for thinking something so stupid. For believing I could ever be enough for a god.
“I didn’t go and seek Loma out. Please,” he stepped forward toward me. “I didn’t ask for this. I swear I would never do that to you.”
The reminder landed like a blow to the ribs, something sharp, something meant to be gentle but still broke something inside me. The words echoed in my chest, rattling through the pieces of what I thought we were.
