But on his end, it was all a lie.
Another wave crashes through me. Not just my grief—hers, too. My wolf’s pain tangles with my own until breathing becomes almost impossible.
She’s mourning the mate we’ll never have. The bond we rejected before it could fully form.
I curl tighter, nails digging crescents into my palms.
Get it out of your system, Violet. Take this time. Cry. Scream. Break down. Then, be strong again.
The tears soak into the cushions. My chest heaves with each sob, my body shaking, but eventually, the storm starts to ebb. Not because the pain lessens; my body simply runs out of tears.
My heart feels like it is breaking. Actually breaking. Splitting apart, jagged edges cutting into everything soft and vulnerable inside me.
There will be no going back. I won’t let myself believe what we had was real when he kept the truth from me for so long, content to let me live in ignorance while he pondered what to do about our bond.
Like I was a problem to be solved instead of a person. Instead of his mate.
Whimpers scrape my throat raw. Palms press over my face, but I’ve already fallen apart.
I’ve survived so much. My father’s death. Trevor’s death. Being cast out by our original pack. Living with a mother who barely tolerates the sight of me. Six years of exile disguised as education.
But this? This might actually destroy me.
For one brief, shining moment, I had hope. Let myself imagine afuture where someone wanted me. Where I belonged. Where I wasn’t alone.
Then it all came crashing down.
Time loses all meaning as I huddle on Anne’s couch. There’s only the pain, the emptiness, the terrible knowledge that I did this to myself.
I let myself fall for him. I let myself hope. And that was the cruelest thing of all.
My wolf keens inside me, pure misery given sound. She’s trying to comfort me, trying to share her strength, but she’s hurting too. We’re both drowning.
Eventually, I lie on my back, hollow and aching, staring at nothing.
The apartment is too quiet. Too still. It makes the roaring in my head that much louder.
My wolf stirs restlessly inside me, her unhappiness a constant hum beneath my skin.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper to her. To the part of me that’s finally awake after all these years of forced sleep. “I’m so sorry.”
She doesn’t respond with words, just feelings. Grief. Loss. But also, forgiveness.
She doesn’t blame me for rejecting our mate. She understands why I had to. Why staying would have destroyed us both in different ways.
The realization makes fresh tears spill down my cheeks, but these are quieter. Gentler.
I’m not alone in this. Not anymore. My wolf is here, and whatever happens next, we’ll face it together. Even if that means spending the rest of our lives with this hollow ache where the fated mate bond should be.
I close my eyes and rest on the couch, letting the silence wrap around me. The grief is still there, but beneath it lies determination.
I need answers about the medicine. About what was done to me and why. About whether my mother knew what she was doing or if she was just following someone else’s orders.
And then, I need to figure out what comes next. Where I go from here. How I build a life out of the pieces Dariusbroke me into.
The empty fieldstretches before me, darkening as the sun sinks toward the horizon. My backpack weighs heavily on my shoulders. Inside, the single photograph I have of Trevor and my father is tucked between layers of clothes. Everything else I own fits in here, too. Not much to show for twenty-four years.
My weight shifts from foot to foot. Eyes scan the tree line. Anne arranged for my mother to meet me here, away from pack territory. Neutral ground where Darius won’t pick up my scent.
