AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Wake up, Princess. Your mother didn’t just want me gone. She wanted you to hate my guts.”
She swallowed and shook her head. “I—just go. I have to get back before they miss me.”
“Wait.” I grabbed her arm. “Tell me one thing. You owe me that much, at least.”
I’d lost. I knew that.
But I was damned if I’d let her go without answering the question that had burned in me for two years.
“Why humiliate me like that? I thought we were friends at least. I understand why you didn’t fight your mother. But the rest? I didn’t deserve that.”
“No.” Her gaze slid from mine. “You didn’t. But I couldn’t stop them from beating you. If I’d tried, it would’ve only made things worse.”
“Damn it, Zoe.” Suddenly, I couldn’t bear to touch her any longer. I released her and stepped back. “I’m not saying you could’ve stopped the ass-kicking. Victorine was out for my blood. But you acted like I was nothing to you except the pretty boy you picked to punch your V-card.”
“I’m sorry.” She heaved a breath. “I—that was wrong. I could tell you I was trying to make it convincing, that they’d have hurt you worse if I’d acted like you mattered. But I did it for me, too. To save face.”
I curled my lip. “I hope it worked.”
“No,” she said flatly. “It just made me feel like crap.”
I expelled a breath. “So that’s it. You’re sorry. And you’re not going to help me find Zaq.”
“Rafe, I—” She wrapped her arms around herself. It was clear her mind was made up. “I’m sorry,” she said again.
So much for my famous charm. I’d have to go back to New York with nothing.
No information that could help Zaq. No closure with Zoe. Hell, I hadn’t even gotten to dance with her at her goddamn ball.
“The hell with your apologies,” I said, low and bitter. “But you know what? I’m sorry, too—that you’re so blinded by your mother’s lies that you can’t see you’re just a pawn to her. She pushes you around like a piece on a chessboard. The woman won’t even let you choose your own mate.”
I stalked back into the bedroom and leapt onto the windowsill.
“Oh, and by the way”—I arranged my mouth in a mocking smile because that’s what Rafe Kral did when things went south—“happy birthday, Princess.”
9
ZOE
Rafe crouched on the windowsill, a sleek black wolf in a tux.
Let him go.
I’dknownhe hadn’t returned to Montreal to see me. But my heart had hoped I was wrong, that he’d come back for me. That second chances actually existed.
I should’ve called security on him the moment I found him in my rooms. But I couldn’t think straight when he was around.
Let him go.
Rafe Kral was a weakness—a craving—I couldn’t afford, especially now.
I was this close to having the one thing I’d always wanted. Power.
Real power.
The kind where no one would ever again brush me or my ideas aside because I was too young and “soft”—or leave me on an island for months at a time with just Jean-Michel, the servants and a couple of thralls to make sure I was fed.
Rafe’s body grayed-out, losing color and blurring at the edges as he entered the shadow dimension.
