Page 111 of Villainous Fate

Say I’m still yours.

Say you choose me too.

Say we aren’t over.

But the longer I sit in her silence, I know.

She didn’t choose me.

She’s choosing the path given to her by The Fates.

I know without her having to say a word. She wouldn’t be this broken up about it if she were making any other choice.

I hate that I know how much this decision is hurting her.

I want to not care. I want to not feel.

I calm my beating heart, using the skill I’d practiced over the last four months: turning the emotions off one by one until I feel nothing. My mask falls into place, and I give her no more of me. She gets the wall I give everyone else.

It’s the only way I can protect my heart.

“Who?” I ask, my voice void of emotion like I could be asking for cream in my coffee. Just as the words are out of my mouth, the jingle of the cafe door sounds at my back, and her eyes flash to it. The sound of the rain still falling outside enters along with the intruder.

Fear replaces the anguish on her face as her eyes become saucers before she looks back at me, guilt flooding her. I know in that instant the person who just walked in is her Mate.

Kill him.

With pleasure.

Chapter 53

Grace

Brokendoesn’tbegintodescribe the gaping hole that now exists in my heart.

I love Deacon.

I will always love him. But he isn’t my Mate, and seeing him pull up his walls one by one before locking himself away hurts me in a way I couldn’t have prepared myself for. His eyes meet mine, and he’s an entirely different person. Devoid of emotion, indifference shining from his expressionless face.

He’s looking at me like I’m a stranger.

I’m so sorry.

“Who?” he asks, tapping his fingers on the table. His tone is flat as if he were asking about the weather rather than the person who stands between us.

Fear fills me as I worry about what he will do to him. I wonder if Marcus being his best friend, was better or worse in this situation.

Marcus enters the diner dripping wet, and cheeks flush in a way that tells me he ran over here as soon as he heard Deacon was back.

Early.

We planned to meet him to talk to him and to break the news in the kindest way we could.

Marcus’s eyes catch mine, and an apology lies in them as water cascades down his face. The rain matching my tears.

The flash of Deacon’s wolf in his eyes pulls even more fear to the surface.

I can’t lose either one of them.

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