Page 91 of Blood of Vengeance

Those green eyes stabbed into me, hard and dark and filled with a rage I could not understand. “But what if I don’t want you to be mine?”

Shots fired, hits taken. Blows fatal.

Fated mating over.

“You don’t mean that.”

But she did. She must have because she didn’t even bother to respond. Locklyn turned her back to me and continued packing. Leaving me. Destroying us.

As a man, I didn’t know what to do with the sudden collapse of my entire world, so I handed over my consciousness to my wolf. We shifted on the spot, howling a sad song as we turned and ran from the room. As we pounded through the living room with the pieces of our broken heart rattling inside us. We couldn’t fix this, so we left. Out the front door. Into the desert beyond. Away from the pain and dejection.

My mate had rejected me, and there was nothing we could do about it. So, we ran.

Thirty

Locklyn

The chaos of the airport first thing in the morning didn’t help my mood. Neither did seeing Zella snuggling into Cutter’s side while we waited to go through security. I stood alone—just how I had arrived. Flinch had run off into the desert, and the rest of the Hellions had either gone home or stayed at Flinch’s house to begin cleanup, which had felt both like the right thing and so very wrong. Especially in regard to Flinch. I had no idea what I wanted from him long-term—if anything—but in that moment, I wanted him at my side. I wanted to know he at least cared enough to show up. Even though I had been the one to push him away.

Anger and disappointment were strange bedfellows to have to contend with.

I took a deep breath, closing my eyes and dropping my head back to stare up at the ceiling before letting it out.

“You okay?” Zella asked. I let my chin fall, trying hard to paint on a smile. She and Cutter had turned their full attention to me, two sets of eyes focused on mine and adding to the pressure of the moment.

“Fine.” I took another deep breath, ignoring the dual expressions of disbelief. “I just hate flying.”

A lie, but one I hoped would at least tell my best friend to give me a little space.

The two went back to their quiet whispering, Zella once again snuggled into the side of the shifter. Leaving me to suffer in the solitude of my own making.

Solitude of my…for fuck’s sake.

I had fallen for a wolf shifter biker who also happened to fight vampires, and this had somehow turned me into a morose poet who thought things like solitude of my own making. What a mess.

“I think we’re about at the end,” Cutter said, glaring at the few people still left in line in front of us. “You going to be okay?”

Zella nodded, looking pale and tired. “I’ll be fine.”

Another woman lying, but I couldn’t blame her. She would be fine because she was used to being in pain, but that fact didn’t negate the suffering this flight would cause. As with everything in life, fine was relative.

“You sure you want to come with me?” Zella asked. Her question shook me because my initial, almost instinctual, response was no. No, I wasn’t sure. No, I didn’t want to go. Just no. But I knew it was the right thing to do. She needed me to help her until she could get her flare under control, and I needed space to give my situation with Flinch some thought. I needed time to recover from the whirlwind of the past seven days.

I had only met the man seven days ago. It already felt like a lifetime.

“Of course I do. You need me.”

“I need more good drugs.” She gave me a weak smile, leaning into Cutter. “You don’t have to leave here.”

But I did. I knew I did. I needed to leave to give myself time and space to think. I needed to get away from Flinch to be able to evaluate everything that had happened with a little distance. I needed…

I needed to tell him how mad I was, but that he still held my heart in his hands. No matter how much it would hurt to give him hope when I felt…hopeless. When I was missing the comfort I felt obliged to offer. Making sure he knew I wanted to come back to him, even though I wouldn’t. Not until I was sure about him. About me. About us.

Because there was an us. And maybe there would be an us again in the future.

“Hey,” I said, knowing my time with Cutter was coming to an end but suddenly filled with a desire to communicate to Flinch. Not wanting to call him in case his voice was enough to change my mind and make me stay, but knowing he needed to receive words from me. So I chose the coward’s way out. “Can you give Flinch a message for me?”

“Sure.” Cutter glanced behind me before jerking his chin in a sort of nod. “But I think you should give it to him yourself.”

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