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Chapter Thirty-One
Jack
Iknew Claire had arrived at the station before I saw her. It wasn’t unusual to see Claire here. You could often find her here when she was investigating a story. Sometimes, she’d seek me out first. Other times, she would go to one of the other officers. Particularly if what she was investigating involved the humans of Mystic Springs rather than witchkind.
However, as soon as she stepped into the station, I knew something was off. Agitation and upset rolled off her as her eyes met mine.
I was on my feet within minutes, jerking my head toward my office. She made immediately for the office as I followed behind her. I shut the door behind us as she began to pace.
“What’s going on, Claire?”
“I feel like something is off, Jack.” She came to a stop a couple of feet away from me. She struggled, one foot stepping toward me, but then immediately stepping away, almost as if she was afraid to get closer to me. As I watched her, I realized I was having the same issue. I wanted nothing more than to bring her body to mine and show her how much I wanted her. But my mind was telling me that, until I knew what was going on, I should keep my distance.
“Everything will be perfect and then…”
She stopped mid-sentence, her eyes sliding toward the surface of my desk. Turning, I already knew what it was she had seen. Pushing past me, she walked to the desk and picked up the documents Sebastian had given me. The documents containing the chemist’s results on the drug they had given to Claire.
“Claire, wait,” I said, desperately wanting to explain what she was looking at before she could draw her own conclusions. Before she could realize all the doubts that had been floating through my mind.
Coward, your name is Jack.
“Is this what they gave me?” she asked, the words sounding as if they were stuck in her throat.
I pushed a hand through my hair, wanting to tear at the strands.
“Yes,” I answered finally, feeling as if I were looking down a dark, endless abyss.
“And what did they find out?”
The document was mostly illegible to anyone without a background in magical chemistry. Still, some things about the document were unmistakable. Like Sebastian’s handwritten note, circled in red ink, that read, “permanent.”
“Sebastian’s chemists had a hypothesis that the drug wore off after a time. That eventually, the witch and the warlock would be released from their forced mating bond if the bond wasn’t made permanent with the ritual.”
“This is what you’ve been hiding.” Her voice was barely a whisper. Hurt radiated from her, and I ached to reach out and pull her to me. “You went to see Sebastian to find out if there was a way out of the mating bond.”
“That’s not at all what I was doing, Claire.” My voice was pleading. I took a step toward her. I wanted her to have everything, and that included a true mating bond. A choice. “I needed to know, Claire. I felt like you needed to know.
She tossed the papers down onto the desk, the papers scattering to the floor as she did.
“You felt like I needed to know?” she asked, turning back to me. Hurt and anger were emanating from her like a heatwave. “Is that why you did all this behind my back? Is that why you lied to me about what Sebastian said to you when he called you that day? When I was lying right next to you after we’d just fucked?”
It felt as if she’d reached into my chest and ripped out my heart. I knew I deserved all the hate she was dishing at me, but my heart still ached.
“I never meant to hurt you, Claire.” I stepped closer to her, only to have her take a step back. Her back bumped into the door behind her and she reached around, grabbing the doorknob. My mind and heart warred with one another. Stop her! Let her go! No, stop her, you fucking fool!
“Claire, the thing I’ve wanted most all these years is for you to be happy. I didn’t want you to wake up one day and realize that it wasn’t me you wanted. That I stole something from you that you could never get back.”
“Did you ever think to ask me what I wanted?” she spat back, twisting the knob and opening the door. “You didn’t give a damn what I wanted, Jack. You were too concerned with what you thought was the right thing. Even if what you thought was the right thing wound up breaking my heart.”
She pushed her feelings toward me. It was something she’d never done, but as she did, I felt all of her hurt, anger, and resentment.
I staggered. The hurt was enough to daze me long enough to allow her to rush out of the door and through the station doors.
