AllFreeNovel
Share Us
What do I even tell them?Yes, I slept with Rayne. Yes, I've refused to mate with them. It seems like a clear message that I've chosen him over them, but it's not. It doesn't mean that. It's just... confusing.
"H-Hi," I stutter out lamely.
Dusk and Phantom stare at me, but Onyx won’t even look in my direction. The anger and hurt coming off of them is palpable. Phantom told them. Of course he did. And my betrayal is what I see in their faces.
"I'm sorry about... that."Damn it. Do I really lack all social skills? Is that really the best I can come up with?
Phantom crosses his arms in front of his chest, but his face has the same hard, cold look it gets when he talks to the other shadow beasts. “You are free to go, Ann. Whenever you’re ready.”
“Free to go?”What the hell does that mean?
“We won’t stop you.” Phantom won’t meet my gaze now. He’s angry. They all are. And it radiates off them like another presence.
"But what about the shadow king and the war? The prophecy?"
Phantom looks toward the river, his mouth in a thin line. "That's none of your concern. Just forget you were ever here."
Forget?"You don't mean that..." My voice comes out high and hurt.
Dusk shoots me a glare and I almost shrink back. “Wewantyou to go.” There is such venom in his tone I can’t be sure I heard all the words correctly.
“What?”
When I don’t move, they stand, leaving me looking after them, taking my heart and all the little shattered pieces of it with them so that all I can do is crumble and cry. This is what I deserve for what I've done. Of course it is. So why does it feel so wrong?
Maybe because I love them.
I cry harder.
SIX
Dusk
She’s still there,sobbing at the bank of the river. The scene is familiar except that in my memory, I was the one broken-hearted, devastated at my loss. Once upon a time, there was a woman the three of us loved, and she turned away from us for another man. She was never our mate, but we loved her. Cared for her in all the ways men could. And it still wasn't enough.
Maybewe'rejust not enough. Maybe the three of us are so broken that no one, not even our fated mate, wants us.
My eyes burn. A smart man would walk away right now, would leave her crying alone on the river. But I'm not a smart man. I care about her, about her safety, more than I care about my heartbreak. I'll do what my kind are good at. I'll slip into the shadows and watch her until she reaches the cave, and her true love, once more.
Knowing we’ve lost her is indescribable. It’s painful in a way that is worse than any injury. Right now, my skin is the only thing holding my heart in place. I want to shift into my shadow beast form, even knowing that doing so would make me vulnerable to the shadow king, vulnerable to the sun in this bright world. I want to race through the woods, as far and as fast as I can, until I leave her behind.
Yet, I'll never escape her memory.
And I can’t risk her safety, no matter how angry, how hurt I am. I’ve sent Phantom and Onyx ahead of me so I can make sure she gets back to Rayne. As much as I hate him, she doesn’t. As much as it hurts me to know, hurts all of us to know, I can’t let her be hurt. I won’t.
After a little while, she strips and goes into the river. She hasn’t stopped crying though, and I try to keep my gaze on the ground. Try because this is not how I want to see her naked. But even so, her pale skin glows beneath the sun’s rays, and her blonde hair makes her look like a mermaid of fantasy when it’s wet and hanging down her back and shoulders.
When she climbs out of the water, dries, and dresses, she’s still crying. Her sobs never slow. It’s as if she thought by being clean, she’d feel good again.
Or maybe she thought washing off the scent of another man would calm us.
It doesn’t. Whether she smells of Rayne or not, she’s made it clear that he’s her choice, and there’s no way to accept that. To move on from that. To simply be okay with losing our one and only mate.
And yet, I keep watching her. Waiting for what she’ll do next. Not knowing what to do when she remains there, crying her heart out, on her knees, looking so damn lost.
Her eyes look even larger when they're filled with tears. The shades of blue within them are the colors of the ocean, the colors of a pure waterfall. The liquid that slides down her pale cheeks draws attention to the scattering of tiny marks, freckles, across her cheekbones. And her blonde hair, pulled back once more in a warrior's tail, is messy, with little tendrils flowing around her face. A hairstyle that I find oddly suits her. Even the clothes the shadow beast female lent to her suits Ann. They’re big on her, but they draw attention to her curves in a way her other clothes didn't, at least not as well. As I stare at her, I swear my heart aches even more. This tiny, perfect woman is mine in my heart, but that's the only place she belongs to me.
She lifts her head as though she can sense me or hear my thoughts. When her gaze falls on me, her eyes widen, and she wipes the tears from her eyes and her cheeks, as if doing so will hide the fact that I was watching her cry. She's trembling a little when she stands from where she’s fallen to her knees, and she makes her way toward me.
