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I can’t help it.It hurts too much. My vision swims with tears, and I focus all my energy on forcing them back, refusing to let them fall. Refusing to break in front of him yet again.
Madd closes the distance between us in a few long strides, grabbing my face in both hands. He leans over, bringing his face closer to mine until our lips are just a whisper apart, our noses brushing. The anguish in his eyes reflects my own as he calmly says, “get it together, Duchess.”
His use of my old nickname stirs a desperate longing within the depths of my soul, and I try one more time.
Just one more time.
“Can’t we…?” the words die on my tongue before I can get them out, but it doesn’t matter. I already see his walls slamming back up, fortifying a barrier to keep me out of the heart that used to belong to me.
“No,” he rasps, letting me go and stepping away. He digs his hands into his hair, pacing back and forth, back and forth. “We can… coexist,” he grinds out, turning to look over at me with a sullen expression. “But that’s it, Sloane. That’s all you’re getting from me.”
“But what about the moon?” I venture.
Madd’s frown deepens. “If you’re smart, you’ll stay far away from my territory on the full moon,” he growls, brow furrowing. “If we’re bonded, I’ll reject it.”
I draw a short gasp. “You wouldn’t…”
“You wanna fucking try me?”
I snap my mouth shut, pausing to search his eyes, as if I’ll find the answers there. “What happened to you, Madd?”
He just shakes his head, turning away from me and striding for the door. I watch after him, and he stops before pulling it open, pausing with his hand on the knob. “Youhappened.” he murmurs.
And with that, he’s gone.
9
“You look like shit,” Mason chuckles, tossing a bottle of water at me as he enters the living room of the Goldenleaf packhouse.
I let out a low grunt the bottle hits me in the stomach, peeling my forearm from my eyes and lifting my head to pin him with a glare.
“Rough night?” he asks, sinking onto the couch opposite me.
“You could say that,” I mutter, shifting my weight against the leather cushions to sit up and twisting the cap off the water bottle he just assaulted me with. “I’m in deep shit with Roxy.”
He arches a brow as I raise the bottle to my lips and start guzzling it down, waiting for me to explain.
Mason’s my beta; my second in command when it comes to running the Goldenleaf pack. Just like Alpha, it’s a title that traditionally passes through bloodlines- so he inherited it from his father, who was my dad’s beta. Although Mason’s almost a decade older than me, we grew up here together at the packhouse, so we’ve always been close. He’s practically family.
Though Mason is still looking to me expectantly, I make him wait, chugging down the water until it’s gone. Then I crunch the empty bottle in a fist, wiping off my mouth with the other arm.
“I was a dick to Sloane,” I grind out. “She started crying, so I took her into the other room to calm her down.”
My beta’s eyes widen, his interest piqued at the mention of my ex. “And?”
“Roxy walked in.”
“And?” he urges.
I press my lips together in a tight line. “And I might’ve told her to fuck off. Yelled it at her, actually.” I cringe inwardly as I recall the hazy memories of last night. “Then slammed the door in her face.”
Mason winces. “Ouch.”
“Yeah.”
I set the crumpled plastic bottle on the side table, easing back against the sofa cushions with a sigh.
“So, you and Sloane…” he probes, lifting his brows suggestively.
