“I said, leave.” She pulls away from me, putting distance between us on the bed. “Go back to the couch. I can’t—I can’t do this right now.”
“Please, just—”
“No.” She’s not yelling, but there’s steel in her voice. “I’m sorry for what you went through. I’m sorry they tortured you. I’m sorry they broke you down and made you believe you were abandoned.”
Hope flares in my chest only to die at her next statement.
“But I can’t forgive you. Not right now. Maybe not ever. You made choices, Kain. Terrible choices that hurt me in ways I don’t know how to get past.”
Each word cuts deep into my heart.
“You need to leave my room. Now.”
I stand slowly, picking up my shirt with trembling fingers. The ring is heavy as a rock in my pocket, a reminder of everything I wanted to give her, everything I’ve lost.
I walk to the doorway and pause, looking back at her. She’s sitting on the bed, small and broken, tears still glistening on her face. The mate bond aches between us, stretched painfully thin.
“I love you, Anne,” I say quietly. “I know that doesn’t fix anything. I know it’s not enough. But I need you to know that.”
She doesn’t respond. Just sits there, arms wrapped around herself like she’s trying to hold the pieces together.
I step out into the hallway, pulling the broken door closed as much as I can behind me. It doesn’t latch properly—can’t, after I tore it off its hinges—but it provides a semblance of privacy.
I barely make it to the couch before my legs give out.
I sink onto the cushions, my head in my hands. The ring digs into my leg through my pocket, a constant reminder of the proposal I never got to make. Of the future we were supposed to have.
I told her the truth. Showed her the scars. Explained the conditioning. The poison.
And she still told me to leave.
Because at the end of the day, none of that changes what I did to her. None of it erases the pain I caused.
The mate bond aches in my chest, pulling toward her room. My wolf whines, wanting to go back, to make her understand, to hold her close until she forgives us.
But she’s right to send me away. I don’t deserve her forgiveness. Maybe I never will.
I pull a blanket over my bare chest and close my eyes, but sleep doesn’t come. Just the echo of her words playing over and over in my mind.
“I can’t forgive you. Not right now. Maybe not ever.”
Along with the terrible knowledge that I have no one to blame but myself.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Anne
I wake alone.
For a moment, I just lie there, staring at the ceiling, my body still heavy with exhaustion even though I hardly slept. Morning light filters through the curtains, soft and gray, and the apartment is quiet except for the distant hum of traffic outside.
Last night comes rushing back.
Kain’s voice, weary as he told me everything. The torture. The lies they fed him. The poison slowly killing him. The mate bond that never died for him, not even after ten years.
I close my eyes against the flood of emotion.
Part of me wants to let his suffering erase the hurt he caused. To say he was broken, he was manipulated, it wasn’t really his fault.
