???
I wake up to the quiet but persistent beeping of my wristband, competing with the pounding pain in my head, which somehow feels louder.
The moment I lift my head, an awful taste fills my mouth. Dizzy, I rush to the bathroom and vomit everything into the toilet.
Bitter, disgusting waves pour out of me.
"Fuck," I mutter. "That’s how drinking ends."
Silence answers me.
The smell is putrid and chemical. Did Salt give me a sleeping pill? I swallow thickly, straighten up, and go back into the room, my eyes drifting to the bed.
It’s empty.
The blanket on Salt’s side is smooth. Only my side is rumpled.
I blink a few times.
"No. Fuck, no. Not this. Please, not this," I choke out as a wave of terror and despair crashes over me.
Because I know.
Salt has run away from the island.
SALT
When I leave Module 71, I feel like absolute shit. The beer I had barely affects me at all. It is how everything ended between me and Eliano that really hits.
Still, I am not letting myself be knocked off the path of revenge. Senu, when he had to choose between our misery and sacrifice, chose sacrifice. I owe him that. I will not bend, I will not let myself be led astray, even if I were to fall for a thousand alphas.
Not even Eliano could pull me back from it, though he probably came the closest.
I take only the bare essentials with me. The cash I still have from prison, because I had money on me when they arrested me, goes into a plastic bag. I also grab a shopping bag to stuff my clothes into.
Eliano is lying there, limp and helpless. I bend over him, fast asleep, press my lips gently to his forehead, then his cheek, and finally his mouth, and I whisper,
"I’m sorry, but our paths have to split forever. Forgive me."
That traitorous wetness gathers under my eyelids. It’s true, this island, this relationship, has changed something in me, just not enough to make me stay.
Honor means everything to me.
I leave the unit, dropping the card on the ground outside the back door of the building.
Moving quickly up the slope, I follow the route I know so well. Fifteen minutes later, I am on the hill, climbing over the fence, then heading down the rocky path toward the beach.
As I walk, I am in this strange kind of high, like determination has flooded every corner of my brain, shutting me off from the voice of reason whispering in the back of my head that everything Eliano said made damn good sense.
But I kick that voice out of my mind, because the hunger for revenge has woken up inside me again. Yeah, it was dulled by the last few days I spent floating in the pink haze of orgasms Eliano gave me.
Not anymore. I’m pretty sure my heat has ended. My body feels weird, slightly heavy and unwilling to move. It’s probably not a good idea to make decisions while in the famous, dreaded Heat Recovery, but it’s too late to change my mind.
After all, I have always told myself that what I had here was only an illusion, just a brief moment, a stop along my road. I am not turning back now to regret it, especially when life has already given me more than Senu ever got.
Still, Eliano’s words keep echoing in my head, about wanting to give me love, about wanting my love in return.
Yeah. Romantic. Sweet.
