Chapter 31
ROY
My wolf wanted to howl, but the rest of me was numb as fuck.
Dead.
A hollowed-out shell.
My mate didn’t want me.
No, that wasn’t true. She did. I knew she did because those tears she’d cried were over losing me. If she hadn't been destroyed by this, she wouldn’t have been so upset.
No, she was scared. She panicked and made the choice that felt safest to her in the moment. It was a survival instinct, borne out of her tumultuous childhood. She was afraid of reenacting her mother’s mistakes. That was obvious.
Her friend had come to talk sense into her about not leaving with me because…
well, because she was human. Humans didn’t know about fated mates.
They didn’t understand how we could be sure about a person in an instant.
Wolves didn’t need a long courtship to be sure someone was right. We trusted in Fate.
But yeah, I guess finding out I killed my commanding officer made her second guess what we had. I’d been protecting an innocent woman, and he’d deserved it for what he’d done. I wouldn’t go back and change a thing.
Except it’d made Brooke so skittish.
How did this go so fucking wrong?
I started the van and put it in reverse. For a moment, it didn’t move. Like the vehicle itself was protesting me backing out of Brooke’s driveway. Oh yeah. That was because my foot wasn’t on the gas.
Fuck.
I touched the pedal, and the van slid backward.
I would leave, but I wasn’t giving up. Fuck that.
I’d give her space but not much. Maybe her head would clear, and she’d realize I would never hurt her. There was no way I was going to Montana without her. My mate was here, and I would be here, too.
I told her I’d always watch over her, and I fucking meant it.
I just needed to figure out a way to show her she could choose me and still have that measured, contained life she craved to feel safe.
But fuck–how did I do that?
I gritted my teeth as I drove away.
I needed to go back to the mountains to run. Then I would figure out how to salvage the tender pieces of what we were starting to build.