Nine
“Please, Calder. I’m begging you. I’ve never asked for a single thing since you’ve become Alpha, but damn it, I’m asking for this. Please, break the mating bond.” Cam was desperate. It had been weeks since the blow out with Ethan. He’d left and wasn’t coming back, according to Wyatt and Callie.
She couldn’t take the stress of trying to live her life without her mate by her side. She’d been fine before he had strolled into her life and claimed her, but after that fateful day, nothing had been the same.
No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t get back to her normal routine or life as usual. She tried. Goddess, she tried. But nothing seemed to clear her out of the haze she’d found herself in. Day in and day out, the depression deepened thanks to an ever darkening mood. Almost as if she’d walked around with her own personal storm cloud.
Her wolf had been even worse. Completely inconsolable at the loss of their mate. To the animal it was as if Ethan had died. Cam had tried to reason with her wolf, but the wolf would have none of it. The only thing her animal wanted was her mate. She’d given up on all else.
Cam had tried to nudge her forward on several occasions to offer her control. Each time the animal refused, choosing to sleep instead. The times that Cam had tried to shift, her wolf flat-out refused. Even more disturbing was the fact that she hadn’t heard so much as a peep from her wolf in the last three days. Not even a single sigh.
“Cam, sweetie. You know I think of you as a sister, and I love you dearly, but I can’t do what you are asking. Even if I could, I wouldn’t.” Calder pulled her into a hug, offering her comfort.
“How can you say that? You see what being mated to Ethan is doing to me. I can’t eat or sleep. My wolf won’t even speak to me. She’s lost all hope, Calder.” Tears streamed down her face. She didn’t bother to wipe them away. They were pretty much a permanent fixture these days.
“Sweetie, you have no idea why Ethan did what he did. If you knew what he was going through right now…”
“What do you mean? All I know is that he up and left because he didn’t want to complete the mating ritual with me.” Cam pushed away from Calder, giving him a hard stare. “Is there something you haven’t told me?”
“Who is running the diner?”
Cam didn’t fail to notice the fact that Calder hadavoided her question and redirected theconversation with one of his own.
“Callie and Ruby Jean.”
“Do you really think that’s a good idea? I was just down there and they are completely swamped. They also look like they haven’t slept in about a week. You know Callie has Max at home to think about?”
Cam had felt guilty as hell asking her friends to pick up the slack, and do all the shit she was supposed to do on a daily basis, plus their own jobs. “They can handle it.”
“I didn’t say they couldn’t handle it, I asked if it was a good idea.”
“Probably not, but what choice do I have? Look at me! I’m a fucking disaster. Have you ever seen me look like this? I can’t do this. It hurts too much.”
Cam felt like every part of her body had been broken, not just her heart. Nothing in the world made sense without Ethan’s presence. The whole damn thing was silly because their encounter had been brief, but explosive. She kept telling herself that she didn’t love him, she couldn’t be in love with him because love takes time to develop and grow. It certainly didn’t happen overnight. She had never bought into all of that insta-love bullshit that she’d read about in romance novels. Even though her best friend, Callie, had sworn by it, Cam was not a believer.
“And what are you going to do about the babe you carry?”
Cam gasped, surprised by Calder’s question. She had told no one that she was pregnant. She had driven to a pharmacy an hour away to pick up a pregnancy test so that no one in her tiny town would know.
“How do you know about the baby?”
“Cam, you know me. You know how my powers work. Are you really surprised?”
“No, I suppose not.” She knew, firsthand, how powerful the Alpha of Twisted Tail was. She had witnessed him in action more times than she cared to count. Him figuring out that she was pregnant, was still a bit of a shock. Hell, she was still shocked to find out that she was pregnant.
“That’s why I need you to break the bond. I can’t go on like this. My wolf can’t go on like this. I need to be healthy for this baby. I need to get my shit together, and I can do that with things the way they are with Ethan.”
Calder exhaled loudly. “You know it’s not what you really want. It’s not your heart’s desire to ditch your mate. You’re not that kind of person. You never have been. No matter how shitty life gets, or how many curveballs are thrown your way, you are not one to give up. So why give up on your mate so easily?”
“Because he doesn’t fucking want me.” She was tired of explaining this to everyone who had asked. The pack knew she had been marked and claimed as Ethan’s mate. They were also well aware of the fact that he had hightailed it out of there within minutes of completing the mating ritual with her. Most of her friends in the pack had offered nothing but kind thoughts and love for her during this difficult time. There were, however, a few jackasses who she wanted to slap into next year. Somehow, she had kept her head held high and didn’t let their snide, nasty comments get a rise out of her.
Talk about a mind fuck.
“What makes you think that Ethan doesn’t want you?”
Cam sucked in a deep breath, and talked herself into her favorite recliner—the one she spent far too much time and lately. “I heard his thoughts—felt his emotions seconds after the mating ritual was complete.”
Just thinking about it, about how he had felt, was like a fresh knife stabbing through her heart.
