Total pages in book: 203
Estimated words: 199654 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 998(@200wpm)___ 799(@250wpm)___ 666(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 199654 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 998(@200wpm)___ 799(@250wpm)___ 666(@300wpm)
He looks at me for a long minute and I’m immensely uncomfortable. None of this feels good. Not what I’ve said. Not what he’s said.
“I’ve been stewing in the fact that I fucked up,” he says quietly, looking ahead now. “I hurt you and I meant it when I apologized. It’s been eating at me. Not only because it means you’re keeping me away, punishing me. Because I hate that I hurt you. Hate seeing it written all over you so much. But if you’re the sort of person who has zero capability for forgiveness… none at all?” He swallows, shaking his head, looking really disappointed before he lands a blow that manages to hit hard. “Maybe Fate fucked up. Maybe we don’t belong together.”
He opens the door, gets out of my car, and walks away.
And my heart twists into a big, fat knot while I watch him do it.
Yeah, this is the only knot I’m letting myself have.
I sit with my feelings, with my emotions, and I do it for a long time. Because there’s no more escaping them. I think I’m finally fully processing all of this. And it doesn’t feel good. It feels the farthest from good that I can imagine. I have no doubt in my mind that requesting this law change is the right thing. But if I’m totally honest, I am wrestling with whether or not to request a severance. Maybe he’ll be the one to do it now, so he can get rid of the urge to claim me and make this all go away.
My thoughts are interrupted by the sound of a yipping pup. It sounds like that same pup I heard yesterday inside the library and again later at the cookout.
I get out of the car and draw the air into my senses slowly, analyzing what I smell. Trees, grass, earth, other nature scents. No wolf shifters, wolves, or dogs.
After what feels like an eternity sitting in the woods against a tree trunk, I get into my car and drive back home, doing it slowly for the first few minutes so I can scan the terrain for my phone, which I don’t find.
***
I’m thirty minutes late for the meeting in my parents’ sunroom. And it wasn’t entirely on purpose. It also wasn’t entirely an accident.
I’m broken. Sad. Beyond sad.
The only ones here are Erica, Vivi, and Dani.
“Sorry I’m late,” I fib. “Everyone left?”
“Yeah,” Erica says. “Are you okay?”
“No,” I whisper.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Vivi asks.
I shake my head. “What was decided?”
“Jase didn’t show,” Dani tells me.
“What does that mean?” I ask, blindly reaching around me for a chair, because now I’ve got a touch of vertigo.
“We’ve rescheduled it for tomorrow,” Erica says. “Same time, same place.”
“What about the spell?” I ask.
Am I fair game? Does he even care?
“I’ve extended,” Dani says. “I can’t go much farther based on the spell I cast and the contingencies that were made. If he’s not around by the day after tomorrow, we’ll have to assess.” She gives me an apologetic smile.
“Do you think he’s just waiting it out?” Erica asks Vivi.
Vivi shrugs. “This generation’s council has had very little exposure to witches. I’m not sure he’d know that might be an option.”
“Shit. That’s an option? He did consider waiting it out when he kidnapped me, but we had words and I no longer think he’s doing that,” I say.
“Kidnapped you?” Dani asks.
And now all three of them are waiting for me to elaborate.
“I think he’s given up,” I say. “Maybe he’d be happy if it were severed.”
All three of them look worried. And this speaks volumes to me. It tells me they figured Jase would prove himself to me within this past seventy-two hours, that I’d forgive him.
I guess they underestimated how stubborn I can be. Too stubborn to give up for all those years on my Jase and Bailey dream. Too stubborn to relent even a little bit now on wishing that he’d have wanted me on any other terms beyond these ones.
“Thanks for trying to help, you guys. I’m… I’m very appreciative.” I rise but immediately feel lightheaded. They must sense it because they surround me and engulf me in a group hug.
“It’ll be okay,” Vivi promises.
And I don’t know if that’s a premonition or just a hope and I have neither the heart nor the guts to ask.
Instead, I ask, “Did you guys hear from Lucinda?”
“She said she’s been calling you.”
“He threw my phone out the window,” I mutter.
They all react the way I would if I was told this. Dani looks outraged. Erica gasps. Vivi makes a Marge Simpson sound.
“Should I call her?” I ask.
Erica says, “No. She said she was going to tell you she’s got no news. She’s getting an impact read on how a mate identification reversal would affect you guys as well as beyond. Council alpha bond severance isn’t as cut and dried as a typical mate bond severance. Not that any of them are typical because it so rarely happens. We’re all okay to delay things by a few days. Let’s not worry about that right now. I’ll message her and let her know where things are at. What can we do right now to help, Bailey?”