Page 150 of Veiled

Tyr roars so loud, I’m not sure if it’s in my head or coming from outside.

My mind stutters, scrambling, desperate. No, he has—he must have. I start replaying every memory at lightning speed, searching for the words. I find moments. Promises of futures. But not that little phrase that means so much.

He doesn’t backtrack. Doesn’t soften.

“I’ve cared about you,” he goes on, voice tightening, “but you had to know we could never have a real future together. You owe the king ten years of service. Did you think I’d wait that long to settle down? To start a family?”

I take a step back, needing to lean on the footboard to stay upright. “You—” My voice trembles. “Aiden, you showed me you loved me every single day.”

“I liked you,” he says, still refusing to look me in the eye as he tears out my heart, “but I’ve never loved you; if I did, don’t you think I would have told you?”

My knees nearly buckle. The walls feel like they’re closing in, too small, too loud with the sound of my heart breaking into tiny pieces.

“Aiden,” I whisper, “Don’t do this, please. We are a family!”

His face twists, pained and angry, “You’ve never had a family that wanted you. You don’t know what a real family is, even. How could you ever think you could give me one?”

“Aiden, please—”

He doesn’t say anything, just sets my room key on the desk with a final click—and walks out.

The door gently shuts behind him, but the sound echoes in my mind louder than he ever could have slammed it.

Tyr is talking to me, reassuring me, threatening to go after Aiden, but I can’t move. My new foundation collapses beneath me as I sink to the cold stone floor, shaking, breaking, and unraveling in a way I didn’t know was possible while his last words to me play on an endless loop in my mind.

I barely register the sound of the door opening before Matt and Sasha rush into my room. Matt’s lifting me off the floor, pulling me into him as Sasha searches me for injuries.

“Lee, what happened?”

“I—it’s Aiden,” I manage to choke out, my throat raw.

Matt freezes, the tension in his body coiling, “Aiden?” he repeats.

“Did something happen on his mission? Is he okay?” Sasha asks from a few steps away.

I shake my head because I can’t do anything else. My chest heaves against Matt’s, my fingers clutching at his shirt like a lifeline.

“He broke up with me,” I whisper, my voice barely audible. “He said he never loved me. That he couldn’t do us anymore. That believing we could have a future together was childish because I owe the king ten years of service, and he—he’s not going to wait that long to settle down.”

Matt stiffens. His jaw tightens, and I can feel the heat of his fury radiating from him like a storm about to break. “He said that?” His voice is low, dangerous, his growl almost matching Tyr’s, and it makes my chest ache even more, knowing the person I trusted could hurt me so deeply.

“You’ve got to be kidding!” Sasha shouts in disbelief.

“He’s right, though, he never said he loved me,” I whisper, my words shaking.

Sasha’s anger rivals Matt’s, “That’s bullshit, and you know it. He’s been obsessed with you from the moment you met at the Staggering Ox. You don’t tell anyone that will listen that you’re going to marry someone you don’t actually see a future with.”

“I—I thought he loved me. I actually started to believe we could have a life together,” I choke out, my words shattering into a jagged mess of grief. “But he was right about that part, too. My family never wanted me, so how would I know what a family is supposed to be like?”

I shiver against Matt, tears soaking into his shirt.

“That fucking prick!”

I don’t even flinch when Matt yells, but as my eyes pinch slightly, Matt’s voice softens, though his protective edge never leaves. “You’ve always been my family, Lee. And when you get married and have kids, whenever that may be, they will be the luckiest people, because you have the biggest heart and you love with every piece of it.”

He kisses my forehead as Sasha rubs my back.

“Sash—will you pull her snacks out? All the unhealthy ones.”