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Reagan shudders, and my heart breaks for her a little more. “I guess I have to.”
“You don’t,” I tell her fiercely. The last thing I ever want to do is force someone into something they’re not comfortable with. I steadfastly believe in agency and a person’s right to wield it. “If you don’t want to talk aboutanything, I can still give you a safe place to rest here for as long as you need it.”
“I have to tell you because I need your help.” She sets the mug on the table harder than necessary, a little tea spilling out over the edge onto the table. She glances at the spill and nervously tugs at her braid.
“Don’t worry, this table has seen a lot worse,” I reassure her, fighting to keep a supportive smile on my face. A slight surge of anger toward whoever put this fear in her builds in my heart, and I clench my hands into fists under the table.
She clasps her hand and drops them into her lap, closing her eyes when she speaks. “My mate is unkind. He works under our pack’s Beta running a grocery chain, but our Beta doesn’t respect him and it’s obvious. Every day when my mate comes home, he’s angry and he…” She trails off. I don’t need any help filling in the blank.
“Reagan.” I abandon my seat across from her and move to the chair beside her. I don’t touch her, knowing better, so I silently send as much love and positivity her way as I can muster as I say, “I know you came here with an end in mind. Tell me what you want.”
“I don’t know.” She’s choked up, tears lining her eyes silver as she averts her gaze.
“It’s okay. Whatever you came here for is okay, I promise. Cupid’s Pack has a lot of friends, and that means a lot of packs willing to protect shifters once they leave here. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
“Quinn, I don’t want to be his mate anymore,” she blurts out. My heart crumbles for her as she drops her head to her hands and sobs. “I can’t face him and reject him; he’ll kill me before he’ll let me go through with it.”
She’s not the first shifter to come to us looking to sever her mate bond, but I think she is the youngest. Most young wolves reject the mates they don’t want, though it’s rare. And most of our visitors coming here are desperate for a mate, not desperate to get away from one.
I wish I could open a black hole around the man who hurt her and swallow him whole. Especially since it’s clear that based on the injury to her leg, he didn’t limit himself to hurting her in human form.
A wolf attacking a human is atrocious. Even more so when it's their own mate.
Sometimes Fate is unfathomably cruel.
“Look at me, Reagan.” I wait until she lifts her head and swipes away the tears trickling over her cheeks. “Your mate bond ends today. I have to go upstairs and grab something. I’ll be right back, but while I’m gone you need to think about what you want tomorrow to look like, okay? It’s time to start the rest of your life. Your lifewillbe yours again.”
“Thank you.” She sniffles, but I can already see the signs that she’s trying to collect herself. Her shoulders straighten, and she swallows thickly as she wipes more furiously at her cheeks and eyes. Reagan is one of the strong ones. She’s going to survive.
As I take the stairs two at a time up to my bedroom, I can’t help but feel guilty wondering how many shifters out there won’t survive. How many of them will never make it to Cupid’s Pack for help? How many will we never have the chance to save?
TWO
QUINN
“Let me guess.” Indie breezes into my room, her layers just as perfect as I expected, and throws herself down on my bed. “You’ve saved someone else in the name of true love.” She loves to tease me, but I don’t miss the hint of longing in her eyes. Asking for the hundredth time to let me help her find her mate won’t fix the longing in her eyes, so I bite my tongue.
“Something like that,” I offer instead, smiling as I finish tucking my heart stone away in my desk drawer. My eyes catch on the roughly heart-shaped stone, and my heart tugs at the thought of my dad. I shove the door shut, letting my thoughts sour as I do. I’m not so sure that true love and the mate bond are always the same thing, but I'm not ready to voice my trepidation to her just yet.
I don’t know why I feel an edge of melancholy today. I seem to be thinking about my dad more than usual too, which feels eerily like a bad omen. I just can’t quite put my finger on where the feeling is stemming from.
“Are you okay?” Indie asks as she takes a step toward my bed, more intuitive than I give her credit for.
“Yeah,” I say, waving her concern off, and she plops on my bed heavily. I hesitate before asking, “Do you know where Arielle went?”
Indie rolls her eyes and groans as she lets her head fall back on my sheets. “She went to try to eavesdrop on your mom at the bell tower. I tried to tell her it was a bad idea, but she’s adamant she knows hiding spots there no one else will ever find.”
“The bell tower?” Mom usually meets in her office at home; I didn’t even realize she wasn’t here. “You’re sure she went to the bell tower?”
“Yeah, you know that kid Nick? The one whose father was—”
I cut her off. I love her, but now isn’t the time for gossip. If I let her start, who knows when she’ll stop. “Mated to the school teacher. Yes, he has a massive crush on Arielle.” I’m not sure how I feel about it yet.
“Yeah, he does.” Indie grins wide, amusement coloring her tone as she says, “And he was hanging around outside the studio when Arielle and I got done. He noticed your mom was meeting someone at the bell tower and assumed Arielle would be free to hang out since she’s not home.”
The more protective side of my wolf rears her head.I’m not sure I like that,she mutters with a tut. Neither am I, to be fair. “Why can’t he hang out with her when Momishome?”
“Seriously?” Indie snorts. “Your mom protects the two of you like a rabid dog. As if you’re supposed to stay Snow White pure until your fated mates magically appear out of thin air.”
