“I didn’t ask for this, Carter! I was doing just fine on my own until you stomped into my life and complicated it. And now, I’m officially through with all of it. You can keep your mood swings. You can keep your bull crap. And you can keep whatever this is,” she motioned between us. “I don’t need any of it.”
As she spun around to leave, the hurt and anger I’d stifled simmered to the top and I let loose a tirade of my own.
“What about you, Princess? Aren’t you just slumming it with me anyway?”
She turned back around, eyes narrowed. “What are you talking about?”
“You know what I’m talking about. You’re so quick to point out everything I’ve done wrong, but have you looked at yourself? You claim you don’t know if we’re friends or what, but you’re embarrassed to even be seen with me!”
She frowned and shook her head slowly. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Sure you do.” I held up a hand and started counting off her transgressions. “You only acknowledge me when no one else is around, you slouch down in your seat whenever you’re driving with me, and I heard what you and Aubrey were talking about. I’d suspected it for a while, but hearing that just proved to me what I’d already known.”
She took a calculated step closer and I had to restrain myself from moving farther away from her. She had this look in her eyes I’d never seen before, and honestly, it was a little scary.
“You heard me say what exactly to Aubrey?”
I wracked my memory for the precise words but came up empty. “Um. I don’t remember word for word.” She rolled her eyes and I stiffened my spine again, the rage fueling me once more. “Basically, you were talking about me and Wes being hot for half-breeds,” I spat. “I’ve heard that hundreds of times before, but never expected it to come from you.”
Her body started to tremble as her face turned red. I’d have been worried about her wellbeing if I wasn’t so angry myself.
“If you actually listened to my conversation with Aubrey, you’d have known I didn’t agree with her, I defended you.”
“That’s not what it looked like to me.”
“Then maybe you shouldn’t have been listening to a conversation that didn’t include you!” she yelled. Callie closed her eyes and took a deep breath through her nose before letting it out of her mouth. When she opened them again, that fire was still there, but it seemed to be under control for now. “I don’t care who your parents are. I don’t care where you come from. You could be half elf and it wouldn’t change the way I feel. Or felt.”
That last word was like a rusty knife to my windpipe, but I stayed as still as I could while she finished what she had to say.
Callie shook her head, shoulders falling with what looked like defeat. “I liked you, Wyatt. None of that other stuff mattered to me. I thought you knew me well enough to know that, but now it seems like I don’t know anything.” She blew out a deep breath. “Honestly, this is exhausting. I don’t have the energy to keep doing this with you. Believe what you want. I’m done.”
She turned to leave, and my arms automatically reached for her. “Callie, wait. I’m sorry.”
She stopped walking but stayed facing the door as she spoke again. “The only reason I tried to not let the pack, or my family, see us together, was because I knew they’d talk and complicate an already delicate situation. It had nothing to do with you. If you’d just asked me, I would have happily told you that.”
She shook her head once more and opened the office door. Words filled my mouth, but my tongue seemed to be stuck because none of them came out. I watched her walk into the hallway, each inch of separation feeling like miles instead.
Finally, I got a single word past my numb lips. “Callie.”
But she was already gone.
Chapter 24
Callie
I woke up that morning with a headache, which was my first indication it was going to be a rough day. Honestly, I should have just turned around and gone back to bed, but I pushed through instead. I had work to do, and besides, I’d spent enough time wallowing. It was time to set all that aside.
Eight hours a night spent awake and going over every single conversation I’d ever had with Wyatt Carter was more than enough. It had become a routine by now. I moped through my day, tired and irritable, and then I spent the whole night tossing and turning. I’d come up with things I wish I’d said and have fake fights in my head. Anything to keep me from falling asleep.
Unfortunately, no matter what I did, sleep would eventually come and then so would the nightmares.
They weren’t your typical nightmares filled with monsters or goblins. This dream wouldn’t scare your average person, even though I woke up screaming from it every night.
It was simple, really. I’d see Wyatt, he’d smile that heart-stopping smile at me, and then he’d run away. I’d chase after him, but every time I got close to catching up, he’d turn around, and instead of his human face, it would be a wolf’s face staring back at me. And not just any wolf face. This one was mangy and mutated. Ugly and contorted into a horrific expression that scared me every time.
I’m sure there was some deeper meaning behind a recurring nightmare like that, but I was too tired to find out. I was getting by with
