Page 62 of The Witch’s Daughter

My head pulsed with the pain of keeping him contained and my vision started to swirl.

“He needs time.” Gentry was suddenly by my side. His worried eyes scanned me from head to toe. “It’s not the rut, is it?”

I shook my head furiously. I hadn’t been rejected by my mate at fourteen years old and lived a lifetime since trying to win her over to go into the rut now of all times.

I wasn’t some male that couldn’t control themselves around a female’s heat, or a beast that threw a fit when he didn’t get what he wanted. Not that I’d ever been close to Tisiphone during her heat. I made sure I was hundreds of miles away during those cycles.

Foolish then. Foolish now.

I clenched my hands into fists to stop my claws from extending.

“I have to go,” I gritted out.

“Line up over here. Our final trial today will be offensive magic,” one of Vincent’s warlocks was saying as I leaned on Gentry for support. The warlock smiled at me as we passed. “It seems some of you are weaker than others at going on the offense.”

Let me out. My wolf surged forward again.

A pained cry escaped my lips as I snapped my shoulder blades back into place.

Vincent’s warlocks snickered.

Gentry kept us moving forward. “It’s bad, isn’t it?” he asked. “What do we do? I’ve never seen something happen like this. You’ve been fighting your mate bond for a decade?”

When he said it like that, it sounded even more pathetic than it was. I knew she hadn’t flat out rejected me, but we’d danced around it more times than I could count until I’d begun to lose hope in a future unlike the present. How could I explain the web of our story to someone who hadn’t lived it?

“I just… Need a minute…”

We need our mate.

“I know it’s the last thing you want to hear, but don’t worry about Trish,” Gentry said. “She’ll come around. And this is good. She’s got an in with Vincent now.”

I snarled at him.

He didn’t release his hold, even as my spittle covered the side of his face. “Right. That was bad timing on my part to mention the warlock. Let’s get you somewhere safe.”

“Hey you,” one of Vincent’s guards called. “The Alpha who got his ass kicked by a girl.”

I stopped dead in my tracks, refusing to look back at him.

“If you leave now, you’re disqualified.” The guard chuckled.

Red tinged my vision as my wolf stopped thrashing. He went dead silent, waiting for me to make the decision on how best to handle the challenge. But I couldn’t trust him to stay leashed. Not after what he’d just done.

I took another step forward.

“Alpha?” Gentry asked.

I shook my head. There was no way I could stop even if I wanted to. It’d been too much. I realized that now. For years, I thought I could keep it all together for both of us like a good Alpha should do. If I didn’t leave now, there was no telling what the consequences would be.

Sometimes, being strong meant knowing when you had to walk away.

It was long past that time.

23

Trish

Oh my gods! I looked over my shoulder, willing Jaxon to stop walking in the other direction so I could see his face and make sure he was all right. Everything was happening so fast. My fingers tingled as I glanced down at my hands, grinning like a lunatic.