“You worried about me? You’d have to care for that,” I told her.
“I do—”
“Don’t lie to me,” I interrupted her with a growl. “All this time, I’ve been waiting on you, thinking you were avoiding me on purpose, and I wasn’t even a thought to you,” I accused.
“That’s not true—”
“Oh, you weren’t avoiding me. You were just working. I’m not even worth avoiding.”
Cole gripped my jaw with a hand that was so warm against my cold skin it felt like it burned me.
“Stop interrupting me,” she demanded.
I didn’t reply. Her burning fingers against my skin were hypnotising. Warmth bleeding into me, painful and wonderful.
I reached up, holding her hand against me. The heat began to return to my fingers with the same delicious ache.
I looked up at her, her endlessly deep brown eyes staring back at me.
She was so close.
So warm.
I stood, holding her hand against my face, refusing to allow her to pull away, not that she did.
“You’re cold,” she told me.
“How long is it before the National Assembly?” I asked her; I wasn’t even sure how much time had passed. How long had she left me alone?
She pulled her hand away from me easily, and I whined pitifully, embarrassingly, at the loss.
“You’ll be back with your alpha by the end of the week,” she told me.
“My alpha?” I asked.
“The Blizzard boy,” she answered.
“You’re going to hand me back to him?” I asked.
I knew she would, but part of me had thought maybe I was wrong. Maybe she would keep me. After everything.
“But we’re…” I trailed off.
“We can’t be anything,” she answered, and I felt myself grow colder at her words. “I’m engaged to Andrew. I have responsibilities to keep.”
“You choose him over me?” I asked. I didn’t know why I was asking. I hadn’t even been aware that some part of me had been holding onto the hope that somehow she would choose me instead.
“It’s not that simple,” she said.
“Why’s it not that simple? Me or him?” I said with a desperateness like I’d never felt before, settling in the pit of my stomach. “Am I not better than him?” I asked, stepping into her personal space.
“Harriet,” she said like a warning.
“Is he better than me?” I continued.
She turned her face away from me.
“It’s not about that,” she said.
