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“I didn’t mean it. I just…I reacted, I…”

“Yeah, you did. You showed me how you truly felt.” She crossed her arms, putting up her walls. “For the record, I trusted you. After what happened with Brody, I’d lost sight of who I was. You made me want to live again, for myself, and…for you. You made me care.” She shook her head. “Somehow, I’d convinced myself that we could work, that we could be together. But you can’t let the past go, and I understand why, I do. But every time you doubt me, it hurts like hell. And I can’t do it anymore.”

“It won’t ever happen again—”

“That’s what Brody used to say after he hurt me, every single time.”

“I’m nothing like that piece of shit, and you know it.”

“I know you’re not like him. You’re a good male, Draven, and I wish I could believe something like this won’t happen again, but it will, and I’m not strong enough to keep putting my heart on the line only to get it stomped on. I won’t do it. We both have a whole truckload of baggage that we can’t seem to get past.” Her gaze hit mine. “We’ll just keep hurting each other if we try to stick this out.”

“For fuck’s sake, Iris. This isn’t ending.” I reached for her, and she didn’t step back. She let me grip the side of her throat. She was trembling. “Please, petal.”

“I know your wolf will need to be near me sometimes. So if you need me close for your sanity, I won’t deny you. But we can’t have more than that.”

No. My heart smacked against the back of my ribs. “You don’t mean that.”

“Yes, I do.”

I stared at her, waiting for her to say something more, something that could make this right. She didn’t. She was trying to hide it, but she felt as fucking awful as I did. I could see it, the hurt and longing lay naked in her eyes. But ever since that fucker Brody did what he had to her and her family, she’d stopped trusting her own instincts. I’d gotten through to her, though—then I’d fucking destroyed her trust all over again.

I needed her back with me. If I had her with me, I could fix this. I knew it with everything in me. She was my mate, and she belonged with me.

A memory pushed forward, hitting me out of nowhere.

“Hey…so do you have somewhere I can plant a herb garden? I thought it was time I planted that…” She motioned to the little herb she’d brought with her.

“You can make a garden wherever you’d like, petal.”

Hope surged through me. She had planned to plant it, the vervain.

She’d decided to make the keep her home.

I was her family.

No fucking way would I give up on her, on us. She wasn’t going to back down, though, not right now with the pain I’d caused her so fresh. So I’d give my little witch a day or two, even though it would kill me, then I was coming back, and I was taking her home.

And if she still refused, I’d snatch her off the damn street if I had to—my mate belonged with me, and I would find a way to earn her forgiveness.

CHAPTER 36

Iris

I turned the page of the book I was reading as quietly as I could, not wanting to wake Rose.

I’d dragged a few books up from our library. I’d been looking for one in particular. One I hadn’t looked at since I was a kid. It was filled with some of our more horrific histories. There was nothing in it about The Maidens, I remembered that much, but I wondered if it had anything about Ortus Cottage? Willow and I used to read it when Rose and Mags were asleep. We’d scare the hell out of ourselves. The name of the cottage was still so familiar, but I couldn’t place where I’d seen it. Now I thought it might be that book.

If only I could remember what was on the cover, or what it was called. My terrified young brain must have blocked it out. So far, none of the ones I’d brought up were it.

I glanced at Rose again, and smiled when I saw she was awake. “Hey.” And did my best to hide the fact that what I wanted to do, was crawl into bed and cry for a week, or a month…maybe a year. I didn’t have that luxury, though, so my broken heart would have to wait because there was still a killer out there somewhere. “Good sleep?”

Rose didn’t answer, staring ahead blindly.

“Rose?”

She said nothing, then drew in a shuddering breath and shook her head, anger flashing through her eyes, real and fierce. “All my body wants to do is sleep.”

Rose never got angry, at least not in front of us.