“You can’t help me,” he snarls—except it’s not quite him. Nothing about this ishim.
Everything narrows to the sudden sharp pain around my throat. I claw at his wrist, trying to break through, but his strength is impossible. Inhuman. Darkness masks his face, his eyes vacant. No rage, no grief. No recognition.
Just emptiness.
“Toby—” I gasp, vision flashing white.
My heart beats wildly. Painfully. Sounds fade. The room tilts. My lungs scream for air.
He squeezes harder.
I scramble more desperately against his fingers, nails cutting into his skin. He doesn’t move. Doesn’t yield.Doesn’t even see me.
“Look—” I choke, fighting for words, “at—me.”
Nothing.
Spots dance in front of my eyes. My wolf thrashes beneath my skin, desperate to fight back, but I can’t shift. Not against him. It goes against everything in me to fight my fated one, even now.
We aren’t supposed to be doing this. Hurting each other.
“Oh my God! Toby!” Ivy screams, coming into the room.
With one quick sweep of his arm, Tobias throws her against the wall, never letting me go. Her head cracks a dent into the drywall.
Tears burn behind my eyelids.He’s going to kill me. My mate is going to kill me!
How can I reach him?
My hand trembles as I let go of his wrist. I touch the mate mark on his collarbone, the spot I claimed him just three short days ago. Something flickers in his gray-blue eyes.
Behind him, Ivy barely stirs. Tobias still doesn’t see me.
I slide my hand under the collar of his shirt, pressing my palm against the mark.
A tremor flows through his body.
“To—by,” I rasp. “Please.”
His grip falters—just slightly.
I brush a thumb over his skin as my lungs scream for air. His face is fading fast, blackness touching the edges of my vision.
“Tobe.”
Another heartbeat.
Another faint tremor.
In my last effort, I touch his face, his lips.Please, Toby. See me! I’m right in front of you.I tug as hard as I can on our tether.
Then, like light breaking through a storm, he blinks rapidly. His eyes focus and horror floods them.
He releases me instantly, stumbling back. I drop to my knees as sweet oxygen rushes in. I cough hard, rubbing my throat. The world spins as blood roars back into my head.
When I finally look up, Tobias is gone.
Pain explodes in my chest. I sit on his bed and reach for the tether again. It’s there—but frayed. Faint as smoke.
