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What De’drik offered…
My heart clenched.
It was too much of a risk. He could hurt me far more than anything my aunt could do to me. I’d built a wall around my heart, stone by stone, with every hurt, and cruel word, until I was safe from anything my family could throw at me. I knew not to expect love or kindness from them, but De’drik gave me hope for more, and it was terrifying. It rocked my wall to its foundations, and even another moment more with him would have left me too vulnerable.
I couldn’t risk it.
As the afternoon wore on, I spotted a long branch, fallen from a nearby oak. There was a fork near one end, and with a little work, I managed to make it the right length to help me along faster. By the time dusk was threatening to steal the thin light beneath the trees, I’d spotted light between the trunks ahead.
It felt like I was moving even slower now that I knew I was close. I had to think of a believable excuse for why I had been out in the woods so long in case my family had already made it home, and I was briefly thankful for the injury to my foot since it would help convince them.
After spending so much time with De’drik, loneliness was already trying to creep in, tempting me to turn around instead of continuing on.
“I have responsibilities to return to. I can’t abandon the only family I have left to go live in the mountains with a monster.”
The words were a whisper that I barely choked out. I was trying to convince myself this was the right choice.
Had I been too hasty?
Was our connection something more?
De’drik was honest and honorable, treated me with respect, and cared for others. In the short time I’d known him, I had learned he was a good alpha, though it might not be obvious at first.
I could have loved him.
The world felt like it was tilting around me as I forced one foot in front of the other, and pain filled my heart. Even if I turned around now, there was no guarantee I could return to him. He had no reason to wait when I’d made it clear I was rejecting his offer.
A rumble of thunder in the distance jerked me out of my thoughts, yanking my spine straight as I tried to see through the leaves overhead. Being caught in another storm would be just my luck.
Ignoring the pain in my foot, I hobbled faster, moving further from the mountains. I had to be close, and I made reaching my aunt’s house my only focus.
As the wind began to gust beneath the trees and the sky grew dark, I stumbled across one of the outlying homes. Like my aunt’s, it sat along the edge of town, half buried in the trees, but the sight of it was enough to drive me on and tell me exactly where I was.
It seemed to take forever to circle around Barcole, but I reached my aunt’s house just as the first drops of rain splattered the ground between the forest and the back door. The throbbing in my foot had spread up to my knee, my breaths coming short and fast, but the fact that there was no light shining from the windows eased the fist around my heart.
I’d made it home before the others.
No one had to know.
I kept pushing until I’d entered the kitchen and started a fire before all my energy ran out. Collapsing in a heap, I sobbed my heartache into the stone hearth, pulling the blanket I kept here around myself so I could pretend I was in a nest.
I’d given up my chance at escape.
At a mate who cared for me.
And no one would ever know.
Chapter Eighteen
De’drik
I’d lost her.
I’d let Ivy slip away.
The one female who’d ever made me feel the need for another’s presence had snuck away while I’d slept.
My only chance to have an omega of my own had climbed off my knot and rejected me.
