“Am I the thing that needs to be sacrificed?” I blink at him, unable to believe what I’m hearing.
Is he for fucking real?
“No. That’s not what I meant.” His shoulders sag slightly, as if a one-thousand-pound weight rests around his neck. “Fuck, this is coming out all wrong.”
“We’re fire and gasoline, Ashton. Maybe… Maybe fate got it wrong,” I whisper, a tiny fissure splintering open my heart.
The two of us… We’re too different from each other. Too explosive when we’re together. He doesn’t trust me, and I don’t trust him. All he has ever done is hurt me.
Maybe, for my own peace of mind, I need to end things once and for all.
No more back and forth.
No more cutting jabs and snide comments.
No more “what-ifs” that haunt me.
“How does it work?” I whisper, feeling the crack in my heart widen.
“How does what work?”
“Rejection.”
He stumbles back a step as if he’s in physical pain, his eyes turning shadowed.
He opens his mouth?—
But before he can respond, a growl sounds from the foliage directly to the right of us.
Fear skitters down my spine, and my pulse picks up speed, tripping hastily over itself.
Slowly, I turn towards the sound, unsurprised to see a wolf staring back at me, his amber eyes glowing with menace.
Christian.
And he doesnotlook happy to see us.
Forty-Three
IZZY
My pulse spikes as I stare into the angry, unforgiving eyes of my mate.
Or the creature that took him over.
He looks exactly like the wolf I saw in my dream, though his serene expression then is a startling contrast to the one he’s wearing now. He bares his fangs at the two of us as he stalks forward, every inch the lethal, angry predator.
Fear scuttles across my skin, raising the fine hairs on the back of my neck, and I have to remind myself repeatedly that this is Christian. He may look like a fierce beast, but the man I know and care about is somewhere in there. He won’t hurt me.
I hope.
“Christian?” My voice shakes.
The growls reverberating through him cease when he glances at me, cocking his head to the side.
“It’s me, Christian. It’s your…mate.” I stumble over the word slightly, but I know I said the right thing when he drops onto his haunches, still staring at me intently. “We don’t want to hurt you. Please, Christian. Come with us.”
I instinctively take a step closer, and Ashton reaches for me, capturing my hand in his.
