Page 41 of Auctioned Wolf Bride

“I don’t know,” I said. “I don’t know how I’m going to feel when it’s gone. It’s hard to tell what bits are from the bond and what parts are actually me, you know.”

She hesitated, her cheeks coloring as she looked away. “So, us? You really think all of that was only because of the bond?”

“I wasn’t lying when I said I was attracted to you,” I said. “But neither of us knows how we’re going to feel when the bondcuts out. We might not be able to stand each other. It’s not worth thinking about right now.”

“Yeah,” she said. “Yeah. Of course.”

“I thought that’s what you wanted,” I said. “We’ve both been talking about getting the bond broken and the marriage annulled. I figured you wanted things to go back to normal, too.”

“I do. I did. Fuck.” She groaned, putting her head in her hands. “God. Just forget this conversation ever happened.”

“Hey, hey. It’s all right.” I ran my hand along her arm. “It’s a valid question. But with the claiming bond, I don’t think either of us is necessarily thinking straight right now. We won’t know how we’ll feel until after the bond is broken.” I hesitated, trying to figure out how to say the next bit. “Without the bond, I’m guessing we’ll want to go back to our own ways.”

“Right.” She shoved away from me, crawling out of bed. “I don’t know what I was expecting. It’s just, after everything you and I have been through, I thought it would be… you know, different.”

Something clicked in my head. I came to stand in front of her, my hands going to her arms. She didn’t lean toward me, but her shoulders slackened.

“If you want to give it a try, we can,” I said. “I could maybe see it working out if we took it slow.”

She gave a bitter laugh. “You’d never be happy with just one woman, Tannen,” she said. “We both know that.”

“Maybe I could be with the right woman.”

The words were out before I could think better of them. Even more surprising, I realized I meant it. Thea hesitated, eyeing me with suspicion.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I’m trying to tell you that I’m willing to give it a shot,” I said.

Thea backed away, shaking her head. “You said you were attracted to me beforehand. You could have given it a shot, then. Instead, the only reason any of this happened was because of the claiming bond. You wouldn’t have acted on it without it. And you just said you expect us to go back to the way we were before this. None of this is real,” she said. “You don’t care about me. You never did. It’s all just been the claiming bond this entire time.”

“Thea, that’s not true,” I said. “Do you think I would have bought you from an auction if I didn’t care about you?”

“You would have if you thought you were saving your own hide,” she fired back.

My eyes narrowed. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

She gave another bitter laugh, shoving on her clothes as she spoke. “You didn’t come find me out of the kindness of your heart. You tracked me down because you knew that if anyone found out what happened and that I’d run off because of you, Astrid or Rand would have come after you in a heartbeat. It was guilt. It wasn’t because you cared.”

I snarled, rubbing my face in frustration. “Why can’t you just accept what I’m saying?”

“Because I remember who you were before all this,” she spat. “The only reason you changed your mind was because of a claiming bond. The instant that’s out of the way, you’ll go back to thinking the same way you always did.”

“Thea… that was ages ago.” I stepped forward, hand reaching out. She stepped back.

“Let’s just break this claim,” she said. “So we don’t have to deal with each other anymore.”

“Thea, let’s talk about this. We should break the claim to make sure our feelings are genuine, but that doesn’t mean we can’t—”

“No,” she said. “I know what will happen. We’ll sleep together, and then after a couple more times, you’ll throw me away like you have all the other women. I’m not going to let you hurt me.” She glowered at me, though her eyes began to water. “You’ve already gotten what you came for, so why don’t you just go?”

Chapter 15 - Thea

After he threw on his clothes, I practically shoved him out the door, trying to keep my legs and hands from trembling. How could I have been so stupid?

He turned around on the doorstep. “Thea—”

“Leave me alone.”

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