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“He can’t mean it. He can’t,” I said, trying to convince myself I hadn’t seen the truth of his feelings shining at me in his gorgeous eyes.

“I think he meant it,” Mags said gently and sat in the chair Ren had just been in.

“What have I done?” I choked.

“There’s definitely nothing you can do—”

I shook my head. Xavier said it couldn’t be undone, more than once. He told me to make sure it was what I wanted. I never in a million years thought Ren would ever fall in love with me. It had been an impossibility in my mind.

Mags sat forward. “And you really don’t feel anything for him, nothing?”

“Nothing like before. I want him to be happy. I recognize how handsome he is, I’m still…attracted to him.” I’d tried to ignore it, but that was something that had never stopped, even after what Xavier did. “I like him, a lot, but I don’t love him. It’s just not there anymore. It’s gone.” My love for Ren was trapped behind impenetrable walls, and there was no busting them down.

Mags grabbed my hand, her gaze filled with sympathy. “I’m so sorry.”

“He’ll get over me, he will, and then all this…it’ll just be a bad memory.”

Magnolia nodded, but she didn’t look convinced.

She left, and I got out of bed and stared out the window. As I did, something rose up inside me, a strange feeling, a yearning that I couldn’t decipher, that I didn’t understand. It reminded me of when I was a child and Mom would send us here during school holidays while she took off on another adventure.

And even though I’d loved it here, and my family, I’d missed Mom terribly.

I felt homesick, I just didn’t know what I was homesick for.

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Chapter 27

Ren

* * *

My fox whined and pawed at the ground. He’d been doing it all day. He wanted us to go back to our mate, to bring her home where we could keep her safe. He didn’t understand why she didn’t feel the bond, and neither the fuck did I.

I’d never heard of it happening before. When a fox found his mate, when that lightning struck, there was no mistaking it. The male felt it first, yes. But as the bond grew in strength, his female felt it, too, and Jasmine was my female. I knew it with everything in me, but still she was indifferent.

Agatheena’s words slammed into my skull.

“It’s simple, fox. Jasmine has been in love with you since the first time she met you. She continued to love you, even while she was forced to watch you drown your pain in booze and other females, knowing there was nothing she could do, knowing that you’d never be hers. After you rejected her, her pain was unbearable. It hurt so much, she knew the only way she could help you heal was to let that love go. So she did. She let you go the only way she knew how.”

What the fuck did that even mean? How did you just let it go?

My muscles ached to run, to run to my cliff; my palm itched to grip my knife to ease the throb of my scars, something I hadn’t felt for a while thanks to Jasmine, but I’d been fighting it back all day. I didn’t want it back. I didn’t fucking want it.

I paced across the room. Going there now would undo all the work Jaz had done. All the work I’d done. I needed to stay strong, to keep my head.

I wasn’t giving up on her, I couldn’t.

Someone knocked at the door. It was late, and I strode to it, hoping it was Jaz on the other side, but knowing it wouldn’t be.

Bram stood there. “You got a minute?”

“Is it Jaz? Is she okay?”

He studied me. “She’s fine. Can I come in?”

“Not really in the mood for company, brother,” I said, shutting the door and following him into the living room.