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A second was all it took to recognize my girl. She stood in the middle of the field near the home, picking flowers. She wasn’t hurt and was even smiling, but I ignored the ache in my chest at seeing her happy without us.
I’d found her. That was what mattered.
I missed her so much that I choked up.
Next thing I knew, I was running to her, my lips curling upward, and Daxon caught on pretty quickly as he was charging alongside me just as quickly, her name on his lips.
And behind us, the guards pursued.
She glanced up at our approach, flinching in shock, and started to back away, dropping the bunch of flowers in her hand.
I wouldn’t lie that her reaction broke me. For all these weeks, I’d played scenario after scenario of how our reunion would go, and never once did it involve her retreating from us with fear.
In seconds, Ares was at her side, and fury burned across my chest. Resignation sprawled across his face at seeing us. He threw up an arm and said something in a different language to the guards behind us. I glanced back to see they’d stopped their pursuit.
I reached Ares first, and ripped him away from Rune before slamming him to the ground, crushing his stupid flowers.
“Found you, fucking asshole!” I snarled in his face, my body trembling with savage rage as I clipped his face with my fist again and again.
Daxon was there in moments, slamming into the vampire too, while Rune came at us screaming, slamming her small fists into me, then tugging at my shirt. The guards did nothing to my surprise, but Ares had always taken me off guard.
“Stop it, stop hurting him,” she cried, tears flowing from her eyes. It broke me to see her distraught, and I pulled back, needing to understand why she was standing up for him, and why she hadn’t batted an eye at seeing us.
Daxon got a few more jabs into Ares, before the vampire shoved him aside easily, then cracked his neck. “Feel better now, boys?” He climbed to his feet, wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth as Rune darted to his side, frantically examining where we’d struck him.
She stared at him with absolute love, and I couldn’t tear my gaze away. It was destroying me. I wanted her to stare at me like that, to care for my wounds, to cling to me when she felt scared. Every second I watched her shower Ares with affection was a knife in my chest, and darkness shifted in me once more.
My mark wouldn’t stick to her, and now she completely rejected my existence.
I stared at her, my body shaking, hands curling into balls. What the fuck did he have we didn’t?
“You fucking piece of shit, you dumped us and stole her for yourself,” Daxon roared, his face red with fury.
“It’s not that straightforward,” Ares explained too casually, considering Daxon and I were about to explode.
“Rune,” I said, reaching out to her, but she retreated from me, clinging to Ares’s side. Her response to me was a blade to my heart, stabbing so deep, I lost my breath.
Daxon threw himself to his knees in front of her, pleading, “Rune, I was dying without you.”
Her eyes widened, and for a moment, I expected her to embrace him.
Except she recoiled even from her mate, while the vampire slid his arm around her waist, keeping her pressed to him.
“What the fuck did you do to her?” Daxon roared, his body shaking. “Rune, sweetheart, what’s wrong?”
“Ares.” She shook, her gaze sweeping from Daxon to me, then back up at Ares, her grip so tight on his hand, that I hissed under my breath. “Who are these men?”
A sting raced across my chest at her words, and my heart thundered in my ears. The reality of what she’d just asked shattered my mind, destroying me as I realized we were nothing but strangers to her.
What the fuckhadAres done?
“My dove, Daxon is your mate,” he said, gesturing to Daxon. And then he turned towards me. “And Wilder’s about to become one.”
CHAPTER 16
RUNE
Lies…Lies…Lies.The words sang across my mind.
