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No.
It couldn’t be that.
Rafe turns, hearing me at last. “Willa.” He breathes my name like every letter is the air and gravity keeping him here. “Are you OK? Did he hurt you?”
I take a breath, trying to quell the adrenaline in my veins. “I’m fine. He didn’t hurt me.” My gaze falls to the floor. “He wouldn’t. He’s my mate.”
I glance up just in time to catch Rafe’s jaw twitching as he finally grasps the situation in full.
Slowly, he removes his hand from Drago’s throat and stands, staring at a blank spot on the wall.
Everything in me screams to go to him, to comfort my alpha, but I stay rooted in place. He needs space to figure this out, and I’ll give my first love anything he needs to get through this.
Anything.
So I stay still, quiet, barely breathing. And I wait.
Several minutes pass before he says anything. “This was consensual?” he asks, tone flat, devoid of emotion.
“It was,” I answer.
Drago gets off the floor but doesn’t say a word, and I take a moment to glance back at Jonah. I promptly do a double take. “Where the hell did you find popcorn?!”
Jonah just grins at me, reaches into the small bowl, and shoves another handful in his mouth.
“Willa, I—” The sorrow, the heartache in Rafe’s voice, it absolutely breaks me.
I reach for him.
But he backs away.
And I’m broken clean in two. He’s never retreated from my touch. Not even when we couldn’t touch. Never.
It hurts more than anything has ever hurt anyone. “Rafe.” My voice breaks on the whisper.
But he only shakes his head, holding his hands between us.
“I—I need some time,” he says and leaves the bedroom.
“No, Rafe. Please…” I call after him, not believing.
He wouldn’t leave.
He wouldn’t leaveme.
The latch clicking shut on the guest suite door shatters any illusion of disbelief still clinging to me.
I break down, falling to the floor in a puddle of tears.
I hug my knees and wail at the ceiling.
Drago and Jonah rush to me, but their touch burns with all the reasons I don’t deserve the comfort. I flinch away, rocking and crying harder every time they try.
Idon’tdeserve their comfort.
I fucked everything up.
God, how could I have been so careless? So thoughtless.
