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“You are mad. And you hate me because I broke your promise. And that’s okay because I deserve it.”

He jumped down to walk over to the next tree, but before he could climb it, I hugged him from behind and kept my arms tight around his waist.

“Let me talk to you,” I begged quietly, pressing against his back and feeling how his body relaxed for a swift moment.

“Let go,” he murmured.

“No. I want you to talk to me about this and not make you say all those horrible things. Tell me why you did it. I’m not mad,” I promised, and again, his body relaxed.

“Please,” I whispered, moving my hands up to his chest and feeling his heartbeat.

He was quiet for a while, and when I felt as if I could move without him getting away, I made him turn to look at me.

I smiled up at him and placed my hands on his cheeks, gently caressing his skin to make him calm down.

“I would like to understand why you did it. Talk to me, Fennec,” I said quietly, hoping for him to talk.

He eyed me carefully, trying to figure out if I was being honest or not. But he knew I was.

I always was, and he also knew that it was hard for me to stay mad at him for more than five minutes.

My anger had vanished, now all I needed was an explanation.

“I don’t believe someone does things like this without a reason.”

His eyes never left mine, and once I saw the agitation in them leave, I smiled again. “Talk to me,” I repeated.

“Promise not to hate me,” he whispered.

“I could never hate you, Fennec. You know that.”

A smile touched his lips, but it vanished as quickly as it appeared.

“Foxes remind me of you. They’re forbidden because you made me promise not to get close to them. But when you made me promise that, I promised myself not to get close to you.”

He let out a sigh and dropped his gaze to the ground while I continued to hold his face in my hands, gently brushing along his cheeks to assure him I was right there with him, no matter what.

“I watched them from afar, but I needed to touch them. I needed to touch you, but you were forbidden. I never meant for you to see this, and I never meant to hurt you the way I hurt them but…I wanted to hurt you too.”

“What do you mean?” I frowned at his last words, feeling my heart beat faster.

“I love you so intensely that sometimes I don’t see any other way to show you just how much my heart aches for you. I feel overwhelmed at times just looking at you, and the foxes were the closest I could get to hurting you. I’m sorry,” he croaked out, placing his hands on my waist.

Slowly, everything he was saying started to have a deeper meaning.

His words made sense, even if they were wrong and twisted.

He loved me, and Fennec had his own ways of showing me.

And that was okay.

31

“It’s okay, Fennec. I’m not mad at you. I’m still trying to understand exactly how you’ve been feeling, but I need you to know that I’m not angry,” I whispered, tilting his head so he would look at me again.

“I broke my promise and upset you. It was never my intention,” he told me.

“I know it wasn’t. I forgive you,” I said with a smile, pushing my hands into his hair and fisting it tightly.

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