“Shit.” Axel bit his lip. “I don’t know what to say.”
I was so ashamed. He’d probably known all along what I was. Probably had a laugh at my expense with the rest of them. “I’d been fucking a hunter for two whole months and never suspected a thing. So much for my gut instinct.”
“Did you talk to him after?”
When I closed my eyes, I could still see the look of horror on his face. Hear him call my name as I turned and ran.“Rys, wait. It’s not what you think. I didn’t kill him. I’m sorry.”
“No,” I said, answering Axel’s question. “He tried to talk to me, but I left him in that fucking forest, packed my stuff, and ran home with my tail between my legs.”
“And this is the first time you’ve seen him or talked to him since?”
“Yep.” I breathed a sigh of relief as the entrance to Clumber Park appeared up ahead. “He tried to message and call, so I deleted them and blocked his number.”
I felt Axel’s eyes on me as I pulled onto the long road leading to the main house. “Yet you still feel a pull towards him now.”
He wasn’t stupid. If I answered that question, he’d know.
I took a deep breath before pulling over on the side of the road. By the look on his face, I think he’d already guessed.
“Yeah, I do.” Even as I spoke, I rubbed a hand over my chest, felt the ache buried deep inside. “Because it wasn’t enough for fate to screw me over by making me fall for a hunter. He had to be my soulmate too.”
“Fuck.” Axel stared at me and shook his head. “That would explain the crackling tension in the room earlier.”
I scoffed. “What tension? This is all me.” But was it? Yes, I’d almost kissed him in that interview room, but I was pretty sure he’d have let me.
“Yeah, right.” Axel rolled his eyes. “The tension was so thick between the two of you I could’ve cut it with a knife. I thought it must be lingering hate, but now I don’t think it is.”
“I do hate him.” I hated that he lied, that he ruined me for anyone else.
Axel’s smile was sad. “You might well do, but that’s not all you feel for him, is it?”
It took me a long while to answer. Axel deserved the truth, and as much as I hated to admit it, to myself as well as him, he was right. “No.” I tipped my head back and closed my eyes. I could still smell him. His scent burned into my memory, seared into my skin with every moment we’d spent in each other’s arms. “I want him as much now as I did back then.” I rubbed a hand over my eyes. “Maybe even more.”
Because he’d grown into a beautiful man.
Because now he wasn’t a hunter.
“But I can’t forget or forgive what he did. So it doesn’t matter.” I went to pull back onto the road, but Axel put his hand on my arm, stopping me.
“Maybe you need to talk to him, because this isn’t going to go away.”
Talk to him?
In theory, it was the sensible thing to do, but I wasn’t sure I could go through that again. How could he explain lying to me, killing a member of the pack I was staying with when all he’d done was get in a fight.
I might’ve wanted Gabriel physically, might’ve ached with the need to draw him close and bury my face in the crook of his neck… But that was our bond—nature urging me to complete what it had set in motion.
I couldn’t get past the sight of him holding that knife, and I didn’t think I ever would. “It’ll get easier,” I insisted. “And Gabriel’s human. It’s not like he feels any of this.” Anger rose inside me at the injustice of it all. “He’ll just leave when this case is done and move on with his fucking life.”
The car fell silent after my outburst.
Did I want him to feel it?
No, I wanted him gone. So far away I could go back to pretending he didn’t exist.
Then why does the thought of him leaving hurt?
I sighed, glancing over at Axel. “None of it matters anyway. He might be my soulmate, but we willnevercomplete that bond.”
