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As I tell them stories, my heart breaks, wishing I could stay like they want me to, and when I’m done, I realise there’s a crowd again. I blush hard when I realise they have all been listening to some of the most embarrassing details of my life, but in their eyes, I see nothing but respect.
Cato reaches for me and pulls me into his arms, his mouth going to my ear. “I promise you will never be alone again, Tally.”
I just wish I knew that was a promise he could keep.
His destiny is to lead his people and to fall in love with his mate, and when that happens, he will forget all about me.
He will forget about his Tally and the promises he made to her.
But I never will.
* * *
That night—or day, I guess—I struggle to sleep, and it seems Cato does too, but we don’t speak. He just holds me, and I want to beg for him to never let me go. I want to be selfish for once in my life and beg him to keep me.
I won’t, though, because Cato deserves his mate. He deserves to be happy, and I won’t keep him from that, because if I asked, he would say yes. He would forsake his future and happiness for me. That’s the type of man he is, and I won’t do that to him. Instead, I bury myself deeper into his side and feel the countdown on our time together trickling by.
I wonder if he feels the same.
I wonder if it hurts him as much as it hurts me, or if he feels nothing but relief.
I’m too scared to ask.
The next morning, we are both quiet as we work side by side, and I find myself getting frustrated because I find nothing but dead ends. My bad mood only declines as time passes and I don’t come up with the answers I know we need. Cato senses it, and after a while, he stops letting me mope.
“Come on, get ready, we are going out.”
“I need to work,” I mutter.
“And banging your head against the desk won’t help,” he retorts before cradling my face. “Tally, you aren’t doing this alone, but maybe to understand this…” His eyes drag over the research. “You need to see the beginning to see the end.”
I frown at that, wondering what he’s talking about, but I trust him, so I nod, pad to our room, and get dressed. I don’t bother packing water or food, because I know he will. He has an obsession with looking after me and providing anything I might need like it’s the best job in the world.
Strange man. I couldn’t get my ex to carry my phone for me or hold my bag.
Once I’m dressed, he leads me from the university building and through the city towards the lab. I’ve been there before, but maybe he needs to be there to show me whatever he has in mind, so I keep quiet, and once we’re inside the building, I follow him down the metal stairs.
He doesn’t stop, though, he keeps walking, and after hesitating, I do the same.
We head past the labs and around the corner we didn’t explore before, not wanting to venture too far. Back here are rows and rows of cells. I swallow down my bile and wander past them. They seem to stretch on forever, but then he suddenly turns right, into a locked room. He breaks the lock and opens the door for me.
Stepping through, I peer at the normal-looking lab, but he doesn’t stop. He takes my hand and pulls me across the room. “Cato?” I whisper, afraid to talk too loudly, as if it would disturb the horrors and the ghosts that linger here. “Where are we going?”
“You’ll see,” is all he says in an equally soft voice.
At the end of the lab is a staircase leading down to a door. The door is locked and coded, and I’m about to try the codes they gave me when he simply rips it open and looks back at me. “The labs were not their only experiments,” he states vaguely before stepping through.
I want to ask, but we step into a tunnel. Lights built into the rounded walls give off a very dim glow. It’s dark and slightly scary, so I move closer to his back, but he doesn’t seem afraid or worried as he wanders through the maze that seems to twist and turn.
“Cato, seriously, where are we going?” I hiss, nerves filling me.
“Trust me.”
I do, so I keep quiet after that. An hour or so later, the tunnel simply ends in two metal doors, and he presses his hand to them, breathing heavily.
“Welcome to the bunker,” he mutters as he rips them open and steps back.
TWENTY-NINE
