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“I never fucking asked you to.” Maybe this wasn’t the best time to bring it up. We’re both tired and irritable. This will only end up causing stress where there doesn’t need to be any.
It can’t be avoided, either. Every step we take means I’m one step closer to the house. To the dungeon. To her.
I take a deep breath and let it out slowly before continuing. “I only wanted to know what was going on in your head. Not to blame you, not to throw it in your face or anything like that. That’s not what this is about. But now that we’re alone for a minute, I need to know. You might be able to turn your back on all of this, but I can’t. I’m incapable.”
“I don’t know,” he mutters, shoving his hands into his pockets, his shoulders hunched. “It wasn’t like I had much time to think about it. It was a very sudden thing.”
“There was a lot going on.”
“No shit. And then here I am, with this… I don’t know how to describe it.” He balls up a fist and touches it to his chest. “This pull. I didn’t know where it was coming from. I only knew I didn’t want it. It felt…”
I’m going to slit him from head to toe if he doesn’t get to it—then again, I understand he might not have taken the time to think it through before now. Not when no one was forcing him to do it, the way I am now.
“It felt wrong,” he finally mutters, shrugging. “My wolf didn’t claim her. The magic was off.” He’s apologetic when he looks at me, shrugging again. “I know you want to hear something more concrete than that, but it’s the best I can do. You know how it is. When the wolf knows, he knows. It doesn’t matter if we understand or not. I know what I felt, and it felt off.”
He frowns when I don’t react right away. “Is that what you needed to hear?”
He has no idea how much I needed to hear that.
It’s a brick wall coming down in front of me. A dam bursting. Chains breaking. My wolf, knowing it’s finally free. The urge to shift, run, and howl grips me tight, but I settle for allowing my wolf to howl in my head. And he does, loudly, victorious. This was what he needed to hear. It wasn’t a thoughtless, callous action on Forrest’s part. He knew who she was and what she was to him, and his wolf wasn’t interested. There was something wrong with their bond.
Which means nothing is standing in the way of claiming her.
The way my wolf demands. Finally, finally, we’re going to claim her. She is going to be ours.
25
LILI
His family has to know I’m down here. His mom gave me clothes to wear and everything.
Was that the truth, though? I can’t decide. He could’ve taken things from her room without her knowing it. He could’ve told me they were from her, so I’d think she knows I’m here.
It’s probably naïve of me to think that, but I can’t bring myself to believe his parents would be okay with this. Unless they’re as messed up as he is. I guess that’s possible—where did he come from otherwise?
His brother has to know, at least. They spend their lives practically connected at the hip. I wouldn’t be surprised if they could read each other’s minds. He hasn’t been down to see me. Nobody has, except for Wilde. Is this their idea of a joke? How has he explained this to them?
There’s so much I was never told about. This is all so new. But I know this is wrong—there can’t be any sort of rule or law that would allow this. I don’t care that our wolves are supposedly connected. I didn’t agree to this. Don’t I matter? Doesn’t my opinion matter?
Is this what happens during a typical mating? It can’t be. Somebody would have told me that, at least. Back when Mom, Emma, Sasha, and anybody else who would deign to speak to me tried to get me excited and hopeful over my future. One day, you’ll find your mate—maybe where you least expect it. I’d think they would add a part about how I might end up getting kidnapped during all this magical stuff. It sort of seems like an oversight.
Instinct tells me there’s nothing normal about this. And I already know damn well there’s nothing normal about him.
I go to the window and look out, but there’s not much to see. How far am I from home? I wish there was a way to find out. I know if I ask him, he’ll get sarcastic with me and ask why I need to know. Or he’ll decide to make a game out of it, a game I’ll probably lose because he’s the one making the rules. When I go through it in my head, my heart sinks. It’s a waste of time. But how will I ever get away if I don’t know where I am?
