Page 19 of Dark Sold Mate

“I said, get out of my way!”

She tried to push past him. Silas grabbed her wrist, and Elle kicked him in the shin, scratching and fighting to the best of her ability.

Silas allowed her to get it all out. She needed to.

Finally, after a couple of minutes, Elle sighed and leaned against a tree, breathing heavily.

“I hate you,” she whispered.

“I know.”

They were standing in the forest, and the morning sun was just rising fully behind the horizon.

Then Silas's phone buzzed.

He took it out of his pocket, and his brows furrowed.

Silas looked up at Elle. “Your brother's here.”

The expression on Elle's face changed from fury to something more complicated. Hope, terror, relief, everything combined.

“August,” she breathed.

“He wants to see you.”

For the first time since Silas brought her here, Elle looked anxious. “Does he... does he know about what you did?

“Well, from the text Rael sent me, he knows you're here, and we're mated.”

Elle groaned, closing her eyes. “He's going to hate me.”

“He could never hate you.”

“You don't know that.”

Her eyes flickered open, and Silas saw the vulnerability there, which was quickly covered up by her normal defiance.

“Fine,” she said. “Take me to him.”

August was standing on the front porch when they arrived at the house. He stood as soon as he saw them; his dark eyes were fixed on his sister.

“Elle.”

Elle stopped walking. She was looking at her brother, whom she had not seen in eight years, and Silas watched her face crumple.

“August,” she whispered.

Then she was running, and August was running too. They met each other in the middle and wrapped each other in a tight hug.

This was what Elle needed. Her family. Her brother.

Guilt sank into his bones as he watched them hold each other in tears, both of them talking over each other in a tumble of words—excuses, apologies, and questions.

Silas had rescued Elle from the traffickers. However, he had also brought her back to the same location where he had ruined her and forced her into a marriage that she did not want. Now, he had to live with the repercussions of those decisions.

He simply hoped that one day she would forgive him. Even though he would never forgive himself.

Chapter 6 - Elle