Page 8 of Mate Forsaken

Silence fell between them. Oppressive and full of regret. She knew the time for them was long gone. Any love she had died a long time ago.

“This is my pack now,” she said coldly. “Myhome. And you’re not welcome in it.”

“You’re still my mate—”

“Don’t,” she interrupted. “My eighteen-year-old self would’ve loved to hear that, but she’s gone. I found a path to travel, and it isn’t with you. We were over a long time ago, so go back to your pack. Be their alpha. And forget about the girl you fucked over for them.”

He took a step closer. “No. I’ve searched fifteen years for you. We’re not through, Circe.”

Emotions swirled through her in a tornado of pain and regret. She might have lied to him but she couldn’t lie to herself. She still loved him, but he wasn’t good for her. Taking a deep breath, she reached for that sense of self-preservation once again. Needing to sever the fragile strand that still linked them together.

“I, Circe Tolliver, reject—”

He lunged and slapped a hand over her mouth. “Don’t you say those fucking words. Let me prove to you that we can still work. That our bond is still there, because the only fact I’vecome to know in the past fifteen years was thatyouare the only thing that matters. I still love you. I still need you.”

Chapter Four

She was still fucking beautiful. Maybe even more so now that she’d gone from girl to woman. All his past mistakes flooded through him. All the terrible shit he said to her. The degradation he had given to their moon-fated bond. She was absolutely right. He was—is—a selfish prick.

Miles searched her eyes for any hint she might still feel about him the way he felt about her. If he’d have blinked, he might have missed the flash of pain in her baby-blue eyes, but for a split-second, he saw the love she was trying to deny. It slayed him that he had done this to them.

That he had forced her to walk away from her life in the Shadowhide Pack.

That he had broken her heart.

That he had shattered her trust.

“Please, Circe,” he begged again. “There’ve been a lot of changes.I’vechanged. I’m no longer that asshole who disrespected you.”

She hesitated, and that gave him hope.

“Can we sit down and talk?” he asked. “Just … let’s catch up.”

Wariness tugged down the corners of her mouth, giving her a pinched look, and he honestly thought she was going to say no. Then she gave one slow nod of acceptance, before turning to sit on the sofa. He followed, sitting in the recliner.

“So, talk,” she ordered, crossing her arms in front of her chest. The move placed an invisible barrier between them.

“I didn’t mate with Melissa,” he said, deciding to get that important fact out of the way first. “When I realized you had left, I told her about you in a drunken haze. She was horrified. See, she had lost her mate in the war, so she knew how much you must have been suffering. She said she couldn’t take awayanother woman’s mate.”

Circe’s mouth dropped open. “What about the peace treaty?”

“It was honored,” he said, and gave a rueful grin. “She married my father.”

It was almost comical how Circe blinked in shocked surprise.

“Uh,” she said. “Are you kidding?”

He shrugged. “Both their spouses were dead, and the High Luna doesn’t offer second-chance mates. It made sense.”

“Let me get this straight. Your ex-fiancée in now your stepmother.”

“Yeah, that sums it up nicely.”

Her arms dropped away as she sat forward. “I admit, I didn’t see that coming.”

“None of us did,” he said. “We have naturally long lives, so at least they won’t be alone anymore.”

“Shit, it’s just, well, unbelievable.”

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