“You have no idea, do you? You took my freedom from me. Just like my family. I was meant to marry someone because it’s what you do. It’s what witches do. Keep the bloodlines strong, keep them pure. And, you know what?” Her voice fell away.
He waited. Holding his breath until the silence got the better of him. “What?”
“I think maybe you could have been right. Maybe I could have loved you. Maybe I could have been your mate, but you took that from me. Now,” she paused. “Now, I don’t know if what I feel is this mark and whatever the shifter thing is or if it’s me. And this.” Olivia pointed to her head.
“Tell me that you can’t hear my thoughts. Or that I can’t hear yours. Tell me that maybe, that even if my heart doesn’t know what’s real that my thoughts are my own. I know you’re in there. I know it.”
He couldn’t look away, but he struggled with the truth.
“How do you trust yourselves? How do you know you love each other when to me it just seems that you brainwash your mates? You blurred the lines between us. I finally was free. I was finally me, and now I am what? Mrs. Ethan? Hell. I don’t even know your last name.”
He sucked in air against the gnawing raw pain spreading through him. She hadn’t touched him, but her words sucker punched him right in his stomach.
“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”
Tears ran freely down her cheeks now. All he wanted was to hold her. He would do his best to make it all better. Right now she wasn't the woman he wanted to have sex with, she was the woman he needed to protect. The problem was, he was the one that caused the pain.
He should have walked away. He should have stopped himself.
“It’s not worth anything Ethan.”
He tried to suck in a breath past the stabbing pain in his throat, he tried to expand his lungs against the ache of a building crumbling and landing on top of it.
“Shifters are never wrong. I love you. I know I love you.”
Her voice wavered, “Yes. But I don’t know that I love you or if it’s just what you did to me.”
He froze. He couldn’t move as she turned and grabbed at the door. A glimpse of her was all he caught as she sprinted down the hall.
The lingering sound of her heavy breathing and soft footfalls disappearing down the stairs and down the next hall until the door squeaked open.
He winced. A pain shot through his chest nearly taking him to the ground. Reaching out an arm to brace himself against the wall, he doubled over.
He’d fucked up, and this time there wasn't any way to fix it.
“Ethan?”
The bathroom door pushed open.
“Good Lord dude. Put some clothes on,” said Kian.
“I think I might have really screwed shit up,” said Ethan.
“And that’s different from all the other times how?” asked Kian.
Ethan shook his head. “No. I mean like, I found my mate and I think I lost her.”
Kian let out a loud laugh. “You can’t lose a mate. That’s not how this shit works. I mean, no I’m not one of your pack animals, but it’s not like Mother Nature up and changed the damn rules.”
Ethan stepped back waiting for something to hit him and hold him up, that or for a sinkhole to open and swallow him.
“What did you do? That look is the kind of look you reserve for when we’re at the blackened gates of hell, and there’s no chance of saving someone.”
Ethan turned his gaze to Kian.
“I might have accidentally mated her without asking first.”
He watched Kian’s face. Kian was his best friend, and the guy had just finally found his own mate. He’d know what to do. The shadow crossing Kian's face though said differently.
“That’s not good. What does accidentally mean?”
Ethan leaned into the wall, turning his bare back against cold tile. Sheer willpower kept him from sinking to the ground like some damn wimp.
“It means that I’m a dumb ass with no self-control. I get these ideas in my head, and I go for it.”
Kian rocked back on his heels. “Well that did make you alpha of your father’s pack, so your instincts seem to be doing something right.”
“I’m a serious fuck up. The whole reason my father was killed in the first place was that I was determined to make the two packs get along. Don’t get me wrong, I love Amelia, and no one can replace her, but she was the only good thing that came out of everything. The poor girl doesn’t even know she’s a product of her father’s stupidity.”
Kian let out a long whistle. “Yeah. But your intentions were good. The packs would be united or whatever, from what you've said. If it weren't for that other wolf." Kian shrugged."Okay. Back to the current catastrophe. So, what do you mean you accidentally mated her? How does that even happen?”
Ethan covered his face with his hand. “I might have seduced her in an alley at your baby shower.”
Booming laughter echoed off the tile walls. “You did what? Wow. That’s a pretty dick move, dude. You were at a baby shower, and you already have one cute little cub. Baby fever hit you?”
“Not funny. You know what. You’re an asshole. I’m calling your mate. At least Raine would be of some help here.”
Kian’s laughter died. “Alright, alright. Calm down. Don’t go getting sand in your crotch. And do not disturb my pregnant mate. She’s crazy emotional right now. So, really, you screwed the pooch - or well the woman. You violated the alleyway, but she was obviously willing. Mating doesn’t just happen.”
Ethan gnashed his teeth together. “Seriously? Yes. She was willing. I don’t know why I talk to you.”
“Calm down. The details are kind of important. Was this like the second date or something? Why didn’t we meet her at
