“This is my friend, Ethan. He is also Darius’s friend,” Sienna says quickly, taking him by the hand.
My eyes are fixed on their hands as I slowly rise from my chair.
“I was not informed that we were expecting a representative from Moonvale,” I say icily. “Your alpha cannot just send his people uninvited.”
“I invited Ethan,” Sienna says abruptly. “I’m allowed to have guests.”
She’s touching him. She’s too close to him. That smile and that look in her eyes, they only ever belonged to me. Why is she giving them to this male, this—
“I missed Sienna, so I came to see her. I hope I’m not an inconvenience,” Ethan says with a polite smile.
I grind my teeth. “No inconvenience. You can join us for dinner.”
“No!” Sienna grasps his arm in a way that has my wolf coming into my eyes. “I’m taking him out to eat. Come on, Ethan. I’m done with work for the day.”
They walk out of the room, leaving me standing there, my hands clenched into fists.
Monroe clears his throat. “I, uh, should also…be going.”
He slips out, closing the door behind him.
I brace myself against the desk.
Ethan. She’s close to this man. Closer than she is with any man. The way she touched him makes me want to rip him topieces. My wolf is so close to the surface that I can feel my teeth sharpening in my mouth.
I pick up the whiskey glass from the desk and hurl it at the door.
The glass shatters. Amber liquid runs down the wood. The sound fills me with satisfaction for half a breath. Then, that feeling is gone, and I am alone in my office with my chest heaving and my hands shaking and my wolf howling in my ear. The enormity of what I have done to us settles on my shoulders like a wet cloak.
I agreed to give her up. I gave up this brilliant woman with her clever eyes and infectious smiles.
Because she would die if I gave her my mark.
The fight drains from my body with that thought, and a heavy grief settles in me.
I’m poison to her.
Sinking into my chair, I look numbly to the future. If I want Sienna to have a full life, a happy one, then I need to step back and let her live it.
Once Lydia wears my mating mark, this will all be over. Sienna and I will forget about being each other’s fated mates. This pain will lessen.
Hopefully.
But nothing will erase the image of the woman meant to be mine.
My hands are shaking. I walk over to the window and put them on the sill so they will stop.
They don’t stop.
Outside, the sun is setting over my territory. The oak tree stands alone in the last of the light.
I drink until the light is gone.
Chapter Fourteen
Sienna
The café is one of those quiet places on the edge of the human town, with mismatched chairs, steam curling off a battered espresso machine, and a cinnamon-roll smell baked so deep into the walls that it feels like a hug. I chose it because I can be anonymous. Nobody here knows me or cares who I am, and right now, that is exactly what I need.
