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Taking a deep breath, I park the car and hop out. Aleks doesn’t turn around. Hands folded behind his back, he keeps his gaze on the mountains.
Accalia’s up there. He’s watching Accalia.
I open my mouth, only to leave it hanging open when Aleks says suddenly, “You’re leaving.”
Over the last year, I’ve had cause on more than a few occasions to wonder if one of Aleks’s vampire abilities is mind-reading.
Then again, maybe it’s obvious.
“Not for good.” Because, really, it’s just a vacation. “Charlie gave me two weeks off. I’m going to spend them up there.”
“With him. During the full moon.”
He sneaks a small peek at me. In the depths of his light green eyes, I see the tiniest glimmer of hope. He wants me to tell him it’s not what he thinks, that I’ll be with Ryker, but that it’s nothing that can’t be reversed.
I have to tell him. It’ll hurt; to Aleks, I’m probably rejecting him the same way that Ryker rejected me. If there was anything I could do to make this easier on him, I would, but I can’t.
So I just say it.
“We’re performing the Luna Ceremony when the moon is completely full. I’m coming back, but I’ll be Ryker’s bonded mate when I do.” I hesitate for a moment, then tell him, “As an Alpha, the ceremony is a little different. We’re going to have this… I don’t know,thing. Party. Whatever. You can come up to Accalia and celebrate with us if you want.”
An Alpha’s mating is a pack affair. All of Mountainside will be there to cheer on their Alpha, and as his intended, I can invite friends and family. It was too soon to have my Alpha dad arrange to leave his pack, and my mom would never leave Lakeview without him, but I thought… yeah. I don’t know what I was thinking.
I had to offer, though. Selfish? Yes. But heismy friend, my closest friend, so I had to offer.
Aleks’s laugh is both hollow and cold as he turns away from me. “You can’t honestly expect me to show up to your wedding with that wolf, do you? Unless you want me to give you away. Because that’s what you’re asking me to do, Gem. Give up hope on me and you. On us.”
“There’s never been an us, Aleks,” I tell him as gently as possible. “From the beginning, I was honest with you. I needed a friend.”
“I am your friend. But can you blame me? For hoping that, one day, I could be something more?”
“I don’t blame you. I’ve never blamed you.”
“But you could never love me, either,” he retorts. “Not like I wished you could.”
I can’t argue with that. If things were different… but they’re not different.
I lay a hand on his arm, trying not to take it too personally when he goes stiff under my touch. “You’ll find someone else someday.”
“Bylas juz moja druga szansa.”
“What’s that mean?”
“I’m sorry,” Aleks says shortly, switching from Polish back to English. “I’m sorry things have to be this way.”
Only it doesn’t. I know that because I specifically looked up how to apologize in Polish for when I finally got to speak to Aleks again.
For a second, I think about calling him out one lying before deciding to keep my mouth shut.
He stays quiet, too, for so long that it becomes awkward. It’s getting late, and I know Ryker’s going to be waiting for me. I don’t want to just walk away from him, not like this, but I don’t know what else to do.
I start to turn, only pausing when Aleks says softly, “The townhouse.”
“What?”
“The property that Roman let your wolf buy. The townhouse off of Oak Road? Is that where you’ll be returning to?”
“Um. That’s what Ryker wants.”
