“You’re saying that essentially, if your theory is correct, I’ve already been forced to accept our bond.”
He nodded.
This couldn’t be happening.
“And you—you accepted it earlier? So we’re…” Heavenly Hell. “Officially bonded?” Oliver was wrong. So, so wrong. If I hadn’t been sitting, I thought my legs would’ve given out.
“Yes.”
My ears stopped working after that word. Aspen kept talking, but nothing registered. I dropped my face between my legs. I tried to breathe. In and out. In and out. But my damned lungs malfunctioned, unable to understand the words slow and calm.
Were we bonded now?
What did it mean?
How would it affect us? Ronen?
Heavenly Hell, I hurt him.
I hurt myself.
I didn’t have a choice.
I wanted a choice.
“Breathe, Lucille.”
It was just too much.
This was all too much.
I didn’t want this.
I just wanted a damned choice.
My mom didn’t give me that.
My mom?—
Aspen grabbed my face. “Deep breath, sweetheart.”
No. No! He couldn’t help me. This was his fault.
“I didn’t get—I didn’t get a?—”
I clutched my chest, heaving.
“A choice.”
Rune barreled between us, forcing Aspen’s tingling hands away from my face, and sat in front of me with two big, beautiful glowing eyes.
Ronen?
I let myself fall into the gold, knowing he was watching, knowing he had to be pissed at me, and sank my hands into Rune’s fur. Something inside me settled, easing the weight of my reality.
I took another deep breath, filling myself with the scent of Rune and Ronen. Maybe I didn’t have a choice, but we all survived. That hadto be worth it, right? None of us died. I was bonded to Aspen, but none of us died.
I dropped my head to Rune’s forehead, trying my damndest to keep steady. She licked my cheek, and her shadow fur tickled my skin.
