I freeze, one hand halfway through zipping up my pants.
“Training?” I repeat slowly, turning to face her. “A lycan?”
She just shrugs. “Yeah. Training. He needs to learn how to listen.”
Is she being serious right now?
“I’ve never shifted before,” I tell her, voice low. “Not once. Even now, I can’t feel him in my head. I can’t talk to him. It’s like… he’s gone.” I exhale hard, jaw clenched. “The moment you severed the bond—”
Pain punches through my chest so hard I nearly double over. I grind my teeth and breathe through it.
“The moment you did what you did,” I say again, steadier this time, “that was the first time he ever came out.”
She tilts her head, expression unreadable. Her eyes scan mine like I’m a puzzle she’s trying to solve.
“So you didn’t just hide him?” she asks. “Because he’s different?”
“No,” I snap. “Of course not. Why would I—?” I stop. “Did you know about him before? Did your wolf feel him?”
She shakes her head slowly, eyes dimming just a little. Her voice is softer now.
“You need to figure your stuff out,” she says. “Your lycan is magically leashed.”
My blood runs cold. “What?”
She taps a finger against her own neck. “There’s some really old magic wrapped around him. Deep. Powerful. You need to find someone who can help you untangle it. Because that collar? It’s probably why you’ve never shifted. Why you can’t hear him. Why everything about you feels off.”
Fuck. What the fuck? Leashed? This is bad. So bad.
But so is the fact that I rejected my mate.
“I’m sorry,” I say, voice thick. “For the rejection. For all of it. I’ll make it right, I swear it. Whatever you need — whatever it takes — I’ll do it.”
By the end, my voice is frayed. Torn apart.
I can’t lose her. Not now. Not when I finally know what she is to me.
She looks at me unimpressed.
“No, thank you,” she says simply. “I just want to leave.”
That’s it. Cold. Clean. Like ice.
“That’s not an option,” I growl, the sound raw in my throat.
I step toward her. She lifts her hand, palm out, warning me off. I don’t stop. I keep moving until her hand presses flat against my chest — right over the bruise.
The second her skin touches mine, the pain inside me eases. Just like that.
My breath catches. I almost fall to my knees.
But she yanks her hand away like I burned her. Her face twists with fury.
“I don’t owe you anything,” she spits. “I understand now that there’s probably some ancient spell screwing with your side of the bond — great. That’s your problem, though. It doesn’t undo what you did. It doesn’t erase what I went through.”
She steps back, chin high, voice trembling with rage.
“I went through six months of agony. While you played king and cuddled your girlfriend, I was trying to hold myself together in exile. My wolf and I? We’re good now. We’re finally free. And you?” Her smile is sharp. “You still have a girlfriend. Go play house with her. I’ll find someone else. And we’ll both live happily ever after — separately.”
