I brush that suggestion aside. It’s better that she returns to me on her own.
“Juliet—” I call.
But I get no more out as she storms back into the kitchen.
“I willneverget mated.” A twist of anger and panic pulls at her face.
Never mate?my wolf whimpers in my head, as if kicked.
“What?” There’s a pain in my chest, like a cracking and rending.
“You need to get the idea out of your mind right now because it isnothappening.” Juliet’s eyes are wild, and her palm cuts through the air with a slicing gesture. As if cutting us off from a future together is as easy as that.
Just a swipe of her hand, and my longing to be with her forever will disappear.
Sitting here, still, is no longer an option. There’s so much panicked energy scorching through my limbs that I need to move. My wolf is prowling and howling, and I can’t think. Ishove up from the chair, its legs screeching across her kitchen’s dingy floor.
At my sudden movement, Juliet flinches.
She flinches.
From me.
And in her eyes, I spy the fear.
She’s afraid of me.
When she told me she believed I’d never hurt her, that was a lie.
Without warning, my mind falls backward in time, to when I was eighteen and in love. Or as much in love as a grieving teenager could be. The memory of me standing in front of another woman, who shrank from me in fear.
And now it’s happening all over again.
Only this time, it’s worse. So much worse.
“What is so terrifying about me?” It’s all I can do to keep from shouting, but that would just prove I’m the raging beast she thinks I am. “I’ve never hurt you. Never will.”
“That’s not what this is about!” Juliet backs away from me until her shoulders hit the wall.
And the sour stench of fear mixes with her normally intoxicating scent. Proving that she’s lying to me.
I should drop to the floor to ease her nerves like I did that night I brought her pie. But my anxious moon-fueled wolf keeps me on my feet. Demanding I take a step toward her.
But the closer I get, the more obvious her panic is. Breaths weave in and out of her lungs, and her pulse flickers in her neck at a rapid pace.
Why?I want to moan.Why do you fear me so much?
“Mating doesn’t have to be scary,” I coax.
Juliet closes her eyes, turning her head to the side, doing all she can to block me out. “I need you”—yes, please, we can fix this—“to leave.”
That’s a sharp slice against an old wound on my heart, and my wolf silently whimpers. All my insecurities bleed into my chest. I’m drowning in my own blood. This whole interaction is destroying me. And the harsh words spill out without me fully considering what I’m saying.
“Gods, what is it with outsiders?” My fingers fist in my shirt as I consider clawing into my chest, ripping out my heart just so it doesn’t have to hurt this bad. “It’s like you come here with the sole objective of destroying me.”
“Stop it.”
“Just grab a knife and stab me, Juliet. Get it over with.”
