She looks at the ground. “No.”
“Why do you care if he’s happy? He rejected you. Let it go. Move on.”
“Is he moving on?”
I rake my hands through my hair. “He's trying to.”
She smiles sadly. “No, he isn't. No female will take him. And no decent male will want me.”
I give her a cold smile. “Well, that's simply not true. Females are in high demand anyway, but you? You're an heir. Males of every designation are going to crawl all over themselves to eat out of the palm of your hand. You'll have the best,” I look over my shoulder back toward the direction of the bonfire, “and theworst of all of them. You just have to make the right choice. Cross's choices are significantly limited.”
“They don't have to be,” she says so softly that it might as well be a whisper.
“Stay away from him, Eugenia. You’ll just make it worse. He doesn't want you.” The jealous lie is sour on my tongue. He wants her every single time she goes into heat. He needs her. But his heart isn't in it. Cross shouldn't be doomed to live with a broken heart because his fate insists on claiming her.
Her eyes harden, and she straightens. “He made that abundantly clear.”
“He did.”
“I hope he's miserable,” she says, taking a step away from me. “I hope he's miserable and I hope he makes you miserable. You deserve each other.”
She can say whatever she wants as long as she turns her ass around and walks the rest of the way up the hill to her family's cabin. She doesn't need to know that we're both already miserable. She just needs to stay away.
I watch her until she's inside the cabin. I promised I would get her back to her family safely, and I keep my promises. I don't want to tell Cross about this. I don't want to tell him that I basically rejected her a second time on his behalf. I don't want to watch him torture himself with the miserable knowledge that Eugenia would probably take him back if he sought after her. I can't watch him wrestle with that again.
I should give him up. I should walk away and remove myself from his equation. He deserves better than this. Hell, she deserves better than this. If it wasn't for me, they'd both be better off.
That's what I'm going to do.
I've decided.
I'll tell him what happened at the fire tonight, and about the conversation I just had with Eugenia, and then I'm leaving him. He will claim her as his Luna. He'll take another Second. Everything will be alright again. A chance of a future is better than the destruction my presence will lead us down.
Chapter Nine
Cross
He told me. I listened. I just can't believe it. And now I'm watching him pack his bag.
“Stop,” I choke. “Just stop.”
“I have to go, Drew. It's the right thing to do. I'll come back. After things settle down, I'll come back. Go claim that girl before someone else does. It's not too late, I saw it myself.”
“Parker,” I rasp, misery dripping from every letter.
“Drew.”
“Please. Don't. I can't do this without you.”
He steps between my knees and wraps his arms around me. I turn my face into him, breathing in his scent and feeling the end of us looming starkly in front of me. I don't want to give him up. Everything I've done for most of my life has been for and with him. Even if we aren't together, we're always together. He's my Second. He is a permanent fixture in my life. I don't want to live this life without Parker beside me.
“If it's because of her, I already rejected her. I can do better. We can leave. We can go far away.”
“No, Cross. No.” He steps away from me, leaving me to slump against the couch. “I'll be back. I'm just giving you room and time to fix this without me in the way. I'll be back and I'll try to be your Second, like we always planned. But you deserve a good life. Go get that life, Cross. I want you to have it.”
He bends down to press his forehead against mine one last time, then he turns away to grab his bag and walks out the door.
The emptiness is immediate and deafening. I don't remember a time, even when we were pissed at each other, that we were truly separate. I don't have a single memory from my entire life that doesn't include Parker. What am I going to do without him?
