He nods.
Again, he doesn’t look at me. You build it up for so long, imagine the perfect moment where you both lock eyes and run into each other’s arms, then lose each other in a kiss.
If he’d just look at me, maybe he’ll know, too.
I gently close the door behind me. His demeanor isn’t helping my nerves. I just hope my news can cheer him up. But first, I want to find out what’s wrong. “Are you okay?”
He sighs.
“What is it? You can tell me.”
“Medein isn’t willing to help. She says it’s in her best interest to move forward with the deal the dark coven presented.”
“So, what’s next?”
Caleb runs a hand over his face. “Nothing. I’ve done all I can do. I’m out of options.” He hangs his head. I’ve never seen him so broken.
It’s perfect.With what I have to share, I’m practically giddy. Because now that we’re mates, we can be together. “What if I told you there was another option?”
I snake my hands around him, resting my cheek against his back, and he relaxes under my touch.
“I’d say that’d be amazing, but I’ve thought about this at every angle. There’s nothing left to be done.”
“Caleb.”
“Hm?”
“Look at me.”
Slowly, he turns.
When our gazes meet, our wolves surface. “Mate,” we say simultaneously.
This is it. The moment he’ll scoop me up, and we’ll get lost in each other. We’ll mark one another and get our happily ever after. It’s when someone chooses me and together, we can fight the council and coven and anyone else who doesn’t approve. I finally found my partner in crime, my comrade,my person.
Except he doesn’t do any of that. His face doesn’t beam ecstatically. Instead, the longing in his eyes is so gravely apparent that as close as we are now, he’s never been more distant.
“Well, don’t just stand there,” I laugh nervously. “Say something. Aren’t you happy?”
My anxiety is running rampant.Why won’t he hold me?
“I am.”
“Then what’s wrong?”
Caleb sighs and runs the back of his neck and averts his eyes. “There’s something I need to tell you.”
My heart and mind race to see who can cause a panic attack first as I wait for his response.
“I’ve known you were my mate.”
“You have? For how long?”
“I smelled you the day you killed my father.”
“You knew this whole time?”
All this time, he’s known I was his mate. While I questioned myself, wondered what must be wrong with me to enjoy the way he treats me, my attraction to him wasn’t my fault. Loving him was inevitable.
