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“What have you done now?”
“This is none of your concern, Kathleen. These are shifter affairs. Go back to your coven.”
“I am not only half-shifter, but our coven protects its own. And Bailey will always be considered ours.”
“Damnit, Kathleen. She is repeating Makaii and Ava’s mistakes. She is upsetting the balance of our lives.”
“Whatever she’s doing, it’s her right to do so. And I will ensure that right.” She pulled Bailey close, and despite being at least six inches taller than the High Priestess of Rathlin, she felt the power and authority emanating from Kathleen in that small lobby. “You ready?”
She nodded but looked over at Nas one last time. “I, Bailey Easton, of the Aisling pack, officially reject you, Nassau Kobe, of the Tuisa pack.”
The silence in the room was deafening, and Nassau’s eyes were wide with a mix of hurt and disbelief.
“Say it back, Nas. Please. End this now.”
“No. I do not accept. No. No. Please. Stay with me.”
She could only get a whisper out, and she closed her eyes, blocking the sight of the man she loved. This was breaking her too. But she had to. For both of them.
“I can’t.”
With a squeeze of Kathleen’s hand, she transported them out of there. When she opened her eyes, she was standing on the deck of Kathleen’s beach home overlooking the Gulf of Mexico. The view was spectacular as the light of the sun disappeared, and despite the calming nature of the waves breaking onto the sand, and Kathleen holding her against her body, she broke down.
She sank to her knees, broken, but finally free.It was done.
And she cried silently at first, until the weight of it all washed over her. Hysterically, she sobbed, curled up in a ball on the deck, with Kathleen kneeling by her side, gently stroking her back.
What had she done?
Chapter 28
Saturday, November 27
7:15 a.m.
The sun rose steadily, no matter how unready he was. But he didn’t move. He laid, stomach down in the cold dirt, naked. His hair was loose and free, now tangled with pieces of dead grass and leaves, but he didn’t care.
He’d run in wolf form most of the night, west at first, towards the non-populated parts of Tuisa, before going east again. Herds of cattle were a blur, and he ran until he couldn’t anymore, long past dark.
At some point, he let his wolf completely take over, and he found himself on the shore of the Laguna Madre, close to NahleCheile, staring over at Rathlin’s magical boundaries.
He knew she was there. He could feel her.
His wolf paced along the beach for hours, howling and whimpering. And he let him. They both hurt, aching for her, but his beast didn’t understand why she was ripped from him.Eventually, he zoned out and sank into a numbness that chilled his soul. When he woke up at the top of a hill overlooking the water, he didn’t want to see the sun. He wanted to fall back into the darkness.
But time didn’t stop for him, and he watched the sun rise and thought of her. He thought of the pleading and panicked look on her face when Axel ordered him to mark her, the tears when she told him this hurt her too, and the mournful but resolved look she had before she rejected him and disappeared forever.
In his restless sleep on the beach, he dreamed of her. Flashes of her riding Ursula, her hair flying behind her, grinning and gloating at him, her soft, gorgeous face when she slept, and even the way her eyes flashed when she was angry. All these slivers of their time together overwhelmed him, making him believe she was close by, but when he opened his eyes again, the sun was higher, and the voice that linked him was soft and insistent.
“Nas, come home, baby. Nas?”
He swallowed hard, realizing his mom was linking him, and he knew she was worried. But it didn’t matter. He shut down the link, putting a block up against everyone. He didn’t want to deal with anything right now, and there was nothing or no one who could change that.
Distractedly, he made his way down to the beach, finding a small dip in the low dunes, and he leaned back, staring at the water. The random thought that he could swim across and walk around Rathlin until he found her crossed his mind, but it wouldn’t matter if he found her or not. She wouldn’t change her mind. She wouldn’t just start wanting him back. The pain in his chest reminded him of the moment she rejected him, and not the rejection in front of everyone. No, he thought of her rejection in the office when she stood in front of him and said nothing had changed.How she fucked him and left him begging. She had planned all this, had thought everything through. Not for a couple days, or even a couple of weeks.
Months.
She had known for months. Had all this planned out. And Ava helped her. Rathlin helped her. The only one who watched out for him was his own Alpha.
