She is a good female. A strong, faithful female. I should just accept my fate. Learn to live this life spread in front of me. Except…
Forever is a long time for a male to live without a soul.
Even knowing the consequences of my actions, I steel my spine and speak my truth. “I cannot mate with you.” From the moment she asked, I should have known I was not meant to accept. “I want more, Leah.”
Once, I believed I could survive on friendship alone, but it is not enough. Curse me for my desires, but now that I know what it feels like to be utterly captivated, I cannot go back to the way things were.
She presses a hand to my chest, where my heart beats for another. “Then let me give you more.”
“You cannot.”
Realization crosses her face as I remove her hand from me. “You want more from someone else.”
My nod feels like the greatest betrayal of all. Not only am I about to lose a mate; I am about to lose a friend.
On this side of the canyon, friends are hard to come by.
Leah shoots to her feet, pacing from the door to where I sit, every move stiff. Calculated. “What is her name?”
I will not be giving Kerris’s name to Leah or anyone else, no matter the consequences.
“Her name, Everett Gathin.”
I clamp my jaw shut, prepared to take this secret to my grave. There is no telling what Leah would do if she found out.
Her hands ball into white-knuckled fists. “It is the Seelie bitch, yes?” Although I am certain my expression gives nothing away, her eyes widen, as if she can see into my mind. Into my heart. “I wonder if they need help collecting water this week.”
I push to my feet, ready to show her out before she says something that we will both regret.
Leah’s father would never allow her to cross the bridge. The females in our village are too precious to risk, and as peaceful as Rosehill might seem, that city is as dangerous for us as our side of the canyon is for them.
“I am sorry, Leah.”
“You aresorry, are you?What is that pathetic apology supposed to do? Make me feel better?”
“I am not the one who lied about our relationship. This is a bed of your own making.”
“By not speaking up sooner, you were complicit in the lie. My father will never forgive you.”
“If you tell him the truth?—”
“And disgrace myself even more than you have disgraced me? No. I wish to see you abandoned just as you have abandoned me.”
“Leah, please?—”
She holds up a hand, her eyes as cold as death. “No. You do not get to say my name. You do not get to speak to me ever again. You are just like your wretched father, and when our chieftain hears about this, I have a feeling your fates will be the same.”
She stalks into the night and slams the door in her wake.
There is nothing to do now but suffer the consequences.
38
“Mistresses often wear finer gowns than wives.”
Madame Ella, An Observation
Nia waltzes into my room with fire in her eyes as she rips the covers from my languid form. “We’re going to town.”
