Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 89554 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 448(@200wpm)___ 358(@250wpm)___ 299(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89554 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 448(@200wpm)___ 358(@250wpm)___ 299(@300wpm)
“I n-never—”
“Stop playing the innocent, damn you!”
“I’m n-not p-playing anything!”
“You were manipulating me from the start—”
“I only started reading your thoughts after we mated!”
Hexius froze.
“And then I...I f-figured out how to block your thoughts out, and I n-never l-listened to them again—”
The truth in her words crashed over him like ice water.
“Oh God.”
And he could feel his own blood turning into ice as he saw the way she was now looking at him.
“Y-You t-thought—”
Samira was looking at him like he had just killed her for the second time.
“I w-would n-never—”
“Samira—”
He said her name because he wanted to make her stop hurting.
But instead it was the opposite, with Samira flinching upon hearing it.
“Let me explain—”
But it was too late. She had already run out of their suite, and he went after her without hesitation, his only thought to keep in his life the only thing that mattered.
And that was her.
“Samira, wait.”
This only made her run even faster, and that was when he forgot the fucking rules.
Preters are to match the pace of humans within the premises of L’Alliance.
At all fucking times.
And that was why—
One moment, he was just about to reach for her hand from behind.
And then the next moment, it was chaos.
Alarms shrieking to life, doors slamming open as L’Alliance guards blazed out from every direction, and her name ripping out of his throat—
“Samira!”
Security converged on him, but there was no way he would let them stop him from reaching her.
His hand almost touched her shoulder—
Alarms shrieked to life.
Doors slammed open. Left and right, up and down the corridor. Guards poured out—Panthera warriors with their enhanced strength, Caro enforcers with their preternatural speed.
“Sir, you need to stand down—”
Hexius shook off the first guard who tried to restrain him. His eyes never left Samira’s retreating back.
Fifty feet.
A massive shifter grabbed his left arm. A Caro enforcer his right. But Hexius threw them both off with just a twist.
Sixty feet.
His Samira was at the end of the corridor now.
More guards rushed in. Six of them this time, coming from three directions at once. Hands locked around his arms, his shoulders, his waist.
“Samira, please—”
He fought against the bodies holding him. Not with his full strength—he wasn’t completely lost to reason—but enough that it took all six of them to hold him.
“I love you!”
He shouted the words out as security forced him on his knees.
And that was when Samira’s steps crashed to a halt.
And she turned to look at him, tears endlessly streaming down her cheeks.
“You don’t have to lie.”
She only whispered the words, but he heard them from a distance, and they cut him to the core. “I’m not lying—”
“Then why?” Samira asked brokenly. “If you r-really love me, w-why? Why c-can’t you still read my mind?”
No. God. No.
Security wouldn’t let go, and he could not remember feeling this helpless.
He loved her.
He knew this now.
But for once in his life, he didn’t know how to prove the truth.
Chapter Fourteen
I DON’T REMEMBER LEAVING L’Alliance.
One moment I’m standing in that corridor, staring at Hexius on his knees with guards holding him back, his golden eyes burning into mine as he shouts words I can’t let myself believe.
The next moment I’m...somewhere else.
Walking.
My feet are moving, but I don’t remember telling them to.
Left, right, left, right.
The rhythm is automatic, like my body knows I need to keep moving or I’ll collapse right here on the...the...oh, stars, I don’t even know where I am now.
I blink, trying to focus through the tears that won’t stop falling. The building behind me is...oh, right.
I’m outside L’Alliance.
In the parking lot.
The back one, I think, because there aren’t many cars and the lighting is dimmer than the main entrance.
How did I get here?
I don’t...I can’t...
“If you really love me, why can’t you still read my mind?”
The memory of my own voice asking that question makes me stumble, and I have to grab onto a concrete pillar to stay upright. My legs are shaking. Everything is shaking. Or maybe it’s just me, trembling so hard I can’t tell where I end and the world begins.
Hexius says he loves me.
Loud enough for both humans and preters to hear.
But how can I believe him when he can’t read my mind?
So he has to be lying.
He just wants us mated to increase his power, but he doesn’t really care for me. At all. He only—
Stop it, Sam. Stop it.
I can’t let myself be bitter just because I’m not the kind of girl who can capture Hexius’ heart.
So stop it!
Please!
But my thoughts only continue to spiral, and I just can’t stop remembering all the times we made love had sex, and the time that I...that I even went so far as to go down on my knees—
My heart starts aching so bad that I end up clutching my chest.
What was he thinking that time?
Could I have looked so pathetic to him that—