Page 32 of Wolf Fated

“You’re a blessing to us, Sarah. A savior for our pack’s bloodlines,” Cindi continues, her tone taking on a wistful edge.

I flinch at the weight of expectation in her words. “I’m no one’s savior,” I retort, the words tasting like ash and iron on my tongue. “I’m not even sure I can save myself most days.”

Tears blur my vision, hot and stinging as they streak down my cheeks in runnels. I swipe them away with trembling fingers, blinking against the torrent as my heart shatters into a million fragments inside my rib cage.

“I can’t...I can’t do this,” I force out in a whisper choked with despair. “I’m sorry, but I have to leave. I have to go and try to make sense of...of whatever this madness is.”

A muscle cords along Mitch’s jaw, but he gives me a jerky nod of acceptance. “If that’s what you need. Then I understand. I don’t want to imprison you here, Sarah. Not when your freedom is what I cherish most about you.”

The words twist like a dagger in my heart. I curl my arms around my midsection, feeling like I might shatter into fractals.

When Mitch moves toward me, I retreat a stumbling step. He freezes, hurt and resignation flickering across his striking features. In silence, he turns and retrieves a set of keys from the pocket of his jeans I notice he has donned, extending the keys in my direction.

“Take my truck. Drive it to the Wolf’s Bite tavern and get your car. I’ll pick up the truck later. And when you go and find your new home...” A look of such profound pride flashes across his expression that it rocks me even further off-kilter. “Send me a copy of whatever best-selling book you write. I’ll be the first to celebrate it.”

A harsh, gulping sob escapes my constricted throat as I snatch the keys, tears pouring down my face in heated streams. I turn on wobbling legs and flee toward the truck, every ragged footfall leaving a piece of my shattered heart and soul behind on the packed earth.

I don’t look back at the murmurs of comfort Sally and Cindi offer Mitch, or the resonant howls that swell from the surrounding forest.

All I can do is climb into the truck and let the roar of the engine drown out the dissonant keening of my fracturing soul. The drive to the Wolf’s Bite passes in a blur of unshed tears and disorientation.

I pull up to the darkened hotel, staring sightlessly at my lonely little Honda Civic parked all by itself, bruised and battered and looking so lonely.

Just like me.

With numb detachment, I park the cruiser and reclaim my own vehicle. I sit gripping the steering wheel and finally allow the dam to burst. Hot, racking sobs claw their way free, tearing past my lips in ragged gasps as the events of the past hour blaze in vivid, kaleidoscopic bursts.

Mitch’s gentle lovemaking, the first to unwind me from years of self-repression. The frantic urgency as he raced off to investigate a threat to his...pack. My terror at being dragged into the forest by that feral wolf, certain I would be torn to shreds.

Only to be saved by...by Mitch revealing his more primal, monstrous aspect. He’d killed an insane creature that would have killed me. He hadn’t done it lightly. He’d only sprung once the wolf had gone for me with a killing lunge.

I squeeze my eyes shut, hunching over the wheel as another wave of sobs shudders through me. How can I reconcile Mitch with the massive wolf? How can I accept that the most tender lover I’ve ever known is the same creature capable of such violence to defend me?

How can I even begin to believe that we are fated? Destined by some mythical, cosmic force to be soul-bound as “mates” in a way far more profound and permanent than any human marriage?

I slam the heel of my palm against the steering wheel in a childish tantrum fueled by disbelief and frustration. My entire understanding of the world has been warped beyond recognition. The rules of reality no longer apply, if they ever truly did.

I don’t know what’s true anymore–what’s real and what’s madness. All I know is I can’t stay in this insular little pocket where the supernatural reigns. Where the line between human and animal is hopelessly blurred.

Even if it means leaving behind the only man who ever truly saw me and cherished me for exactly who I am.

Chapter Sixteen

Sarah

I leave Willowbrook sobbing uncontrollably, the Honda Civic’s tires kicking up plumes of dust in my wake. Hot tears blur my vision as I peel out onto the main road, Mitch’s anguished face seared into my mind’s eye. The memory of him standing alone and watching me drive away after I utterly shattered his heart is an agonizing brand on my soul.

I drive for days in a tear-stained, sleepless haze, the miles blurring together. Thank God I scraped up a few dollars I found in my car’s console to pay for gas. All I know is I need to put as much distance as possible between myself and Willowbrook, that beautiful, quaint little town where the lines between human and animal blur.

Eventually I find myself in a large, indifferent city. Towering skyscrapers loom over crowded streets packed with people rushing along with bowed heads. The noise and chaos should be comforting in its familiarity, but it only makes me feel more hollowed out and alone.

I am nothing but a cavernous shell, an empty husk of the woman I was. I left my heart in a tattered, bloodied lump at Mitch’s feet.

My insides have been carved out with a rusted spoon and are nothing more than a bloodied mess.

I miss him.

I miss his warmth. His caring. The way he looked at me as though he saw nothing else. It’s more than anyone has ever seen me before. Or probably will ever again. I fight the urge to run back and fall into his arms. To give myself over to the magnetic pull that twists me up inside.

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