“I’m going back to my pride.” I flip the luggage open. “I can’t make you love me. I can’t keep begging you to build the mate bond with me. I’m nagging you for the basics.”
“Wait, hold on?—“
He crosses the room fast, his footsteps heavy. I start pulling clothes out of the drawer and dropping them into the suitcase, not bothering to fold anything.
“So this is your response to my honesty. To leave me,” he says, his voice cracking open on the last word. “We spent a year building a mate bond.”
I keep packing, my movements mechanical.
“I spent a year building a mate bond,” I tell him, not looking up. “You spent a year enjoying fucking me. I’m a fetish to you.”
I hear his breath pull in behind me, sharp and pained. Then I hear his magic, the low crackling snap of it filling the air with electricity, and my luggage slides out from under my hands and back into the closet as if yanked by invisible strings. The air goes electric against the back of my neck, raising the fine hairs there.
I stand upright, going rigid.
My tail sways behind me, slow and agitated, the tassel flicking back and forth. I turn to face him.
“You’re not finished with me yet.” His voice has dropped an octave, dangerous now.
“I get that you’re pissed off. You have every right to be.”
He lifts his hand and points one stern finger in my face. My lion hisses inside me. My tail cracks up from behind me to slap him. A blue-gold shield closes around his face before the tassel lands, magic springing to his defense. My tail bounces off it and snaps back behind me. He grins at me, smug despite the tears in his eyes, his finger still in my face.
“But don’t you ever speak like that to me again,” he growls, his voice low and hard. “I don’t care how angry you are at me. Don’t you ever deny my love for you.”
“I’m leaving you.”
“No the fuck you’re not.” His magic crackles louder.
“Put a shield on the door then,” I tell him, stepping back from his finger, my nostrils flaring. “Force me to stay with you like I’m your little prisoner. Your plaything.”
His finger drops, and his head drops with it. He stands there with his hand at his side and his eyes on the floor, and I smell the shame coming off him before he speaks—hot and bitter.
“I won’t lock you in with me.” His voice comes out low, defeated. “But I’m asking you to give me another chance. I’m sorry, Mara. I’m so sorry.”
He lifts his eyes to mine, wet and remorseful, and I’ve seen this look before. He knows he’s hurt me and can’t take it back.
“You can’t stand here and tell me this is unforgivable.”
I look away from him, unable to bear the weight of his gaze. “It’s not unforgivable, Aaron.”
I force myself to hold his stare.
“But I’m not staying with you. I want a home. I want cubs. I want a real mate bond. I’m not pretending we have what we don’t anymore.”
“And you can’t have that and stay with me, Mara?” His voice has gone thin, stretched to breaking. “Give me a chance. Trust me.”
“I did trust you.”
He goes quiet.
He stands there with his hands at his sides, just looking at me, and the words hit him. He breaks. His whole body gives at once, shoulders caving inward, knees going out from under him, and he goes down onto the floor in a slow broken fold at my feet. His head bows into his hands. His hands come up to cover his face like he can’t stand to have me see him.
“If you leave me it will kill me,” he says from behind his hands, the words muffled but clear enough to make my heart squeeze.
“I love you, Aaron,” I tell him, and my voice stays steady. “But I’m not taking this from you anymore.”
“Okay.” His voice cracks. “You want me to grovel, Mara?”
