Page 173 of The Broken Aztec Princesses

We c—

Enough! It’s over. She made that very clear.

Nyko whimpered and retreated to the back of my mind. I left the room, needing to run out my heartache. I shifted the moment I was out of the pack house and ran through the woods, the silence from the lack of life was deafening. I just kept running, her words repeating over and over in my head. Her face filled with suspicion flashed in my head, making the heartbreak worse. Just yesterday, I thought I saw so much love in her eyes as we made love. Was it all just my imagination? Could I really have been so delusional?

It was daytime by the time I walked back into the pack house. I caught Violet and Chris on their way out, and I figured I may as well rip the band aid off all at once.

“Hey, just thought you should know. I talked to Bells last night. I’ll be leaving on Friday.” I called out.

“Oh, but did—”

“Not happening,” I interrupted her question.

“I’m sorry,” Violet whispered, making me swallow hard.

I nodded and entered my room. I took a shower and got to work. I had a lot to do. I needed to get more temporary housing and schedule more of the permanent houses to be built. I went downstairs to the conference room John and I had been working from over the last few months, and opened my laptop. Once Ihad what I needed, I called Alpha David and placed the order for more houses. I called the place where I’d bought the modular homes, placed another order and set up a delivery date. Then, I called Cory.

“Good morning,” Cory answered on the second ring.

“Hey, good morning. I wanted to see if you’d be able to hold a few of us over after Friday until the modular homes get delivered.”

“We’ll figure it out. Evie, Meli and Zi have been working with Guardian Moon. We’re finding the room. Some of Bells’ pack will probably be coming down, too, once she’s ready, so we’re preparing for a few more hundred people flooding in. I might even reach out to David to see if he’s got room.”

“Thanks, Cory. I owe you big time.”

“That’s what friends are for. After everything you did for Bells, it’s the least I could do.”

“We’ll keep in touch.”

“Sounds good.”

I guess it’s a good thing Bells never wanted to tell anyone about our relationship,I thought after I hung up talking to her twin.

At least my pack wouldn’t suffer the consequences of me being a love-struck fool, and got turned away and deserted by the few allies we had, because it didn’t work out. It wasn’t like we had enemies or were unfriendly people. We were just busy. Cattle ranching was time-consuming and we didn’t leave the pack grounds very often.

I dove into work. The pack grounds we found weren’t a hundred percent ideal. A big portion of it was all woods so I was hiring a logging company to clear out a portion of it for houses and for the cattle. Since the property was huge, It would still leave a lot of untouched forest for my pack to run in.

I tried my best not to think about Bells and my broken heart throughout the day, but it was a futile endeavor as I heard and smelled her walk to and from her office, as she talked to the remaining members of her pack and arranged things.

John went to and from the pack grounds with a couple of warriors, picking up and dropping off the rental vehicles I’d booked for the big move. The last set was from a company almost an hour away. We’d cleaned out the entire region.

It was well past dinner by the time he got back, and I was still sitting in the same damn chair, wallowing in my self-pity.

“Let’s go eat. I’m starving,” John stated, closing my laptop.

“You go. I’m just going to go to bed. I didn’t sleep last night,” I grumbled, standing and stretching.

Maybe Bells had a point. Maybe being alone for a whole day was the way to go. Maybe that’s where I went wrong. I should have left her alone instead of trying to get her to open up to me. But I wanted to be the damn hero that held her and comforted her. Look where that got me.

“Did you eat lunch?” John asked, skewing an eyebrow as he took in my crinkled clothes from sitting all day.

“Yep. Sure did,” I lied, and John sighed.

“Don’t make me call your mother.”

“Stop threatening to tattle on me. I’m in my thirties,” I growled, pushing past him.

“I’ll stop when it stops working,” he called after me, but didn’t stop me from leaving.

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