Page 12 of Can't Be Love

Once the door closed I jolted back to the present. I wasn’t entirely out of my Lily trance with her scent so prominent in the room, but it was enough for me to begin to think clearly at least.

“Hey, babe,” Sydney called. She came around the counter with a smile on her face.

I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t want to sit her down and have the talk and watch her heart break before my eyes. I knew it was coming. She knew me too well. She’d know anyway because she was about to kiss me and my wolf was already growling in my head. I swallowed hard.

“Syd, we need to talk.” My serious tone stopped her in her tracks.

“Um, okay. Let me lock up and we can talk,” she said hesitantly.

“Not here,” I said, and she turned questioning eyes my way. I couldn’t explain to her how the smell of my mate was too fresh and distracting for the conversation we were about to have. “Can you lock up for lunch?”

“Yeah, sure,” she said with uncertainty.

She locked up the store and we walked to my car. I held the door open, noticing she hadn’t tried to kiss me or even reach out to me. I hated that. Syd and I had been friends our entire lives. I had hurt her before, but she’d always been so forgiving and loving. She always took me back no matter how many times I strayed from her. It was common knowledge that we had looked to pursue bonding as compatible mates. We’d even gone through the Pack Council and received permission, but then word came of Maddie being alive. It had shaken me to my core and in the chaos that followed, we’d dropped the idea.

What would have happened if we’d gone through with it? I’d never met a compatible mate who’d later found his true mate., never even heard of such a thing. What happened then? Would I have even recognized Lily if my wolf had already bonded with Sydney’s? Would Lily have spent her entire life alone, looking for me? I had never much considered such things, but given the circumstances it was all I could think of.

“What’s wrong, Thomas?” she asked as I drove us out of town.

I looked over at her sadly. I didn’t know how to begin.

“Is it Madelyn?” she asked, sounding concerned.

I shook my head but remained quiet until I came to a clearing and pulled into a field. It overlooked only a part of our vast open land. Cows were roaming the area. Sydney had always loved it. Would Lily? Could she truly be happy living in Collier?

I turned in my seat to face Sydney, took a deep breath, and closed my eyes.

“I met someone, Syd,” I finally said.

When I opened my eyes, she was nodding and there were tears in her eyes. We had been here before. I could see on her face she thought I wasn’t ready to commit, that I’d changed my mind about being her mate so I didn’t have to settle down. That wasn’t exactly the same thing this time.

“It’s not like that,” I told her. “I—shit, I don’t know how to talk about this.”

She was openly crying now. “Just tell me, Thomas. You’ve never sugarcoated it before. Why start now?”

“That’s not fair, Syd. This isn’t the same.”

“It’s not?” she asked, sounding pissed. I could feel the anger bubbling up from her. She wasn’t one to lose her temper, and I had never seen her so furious. “Look around, Thomas. Same field, same story, just a new day. I can’t believe I was dumb enough to fall for it again. Which story is it this time? Huh? ‘I’m just not ready to settle down.’ ‘I’m seeing someone else.’ ‘Can’t you see you’re better off without me?’ Which excuse is it this time, Thomas? God, I can’t believe after all you’ve put me through over the years that we’re right back here. I love you. Don’t you know that by now? What do I have to do to show you that I’m worth your love, too?”

I hated hurting her. It was tearing me up inside, but I knew this time it was final.

“I love you too, Sydney, always have. You know that. I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Well, take a good look around then, because that’s exactly what you’re doing.” We sat in silence for a long time. I felt her anger begin to subside and acceptance replace it. “I can’t do this with you again,” she sniffed.

“It’s not the same this time. I met someone.”

“She better be the one, because I’m not going through this with you again.”

I nodded sadly. “She is,” I whispered.

Sydney’s head whipped around in surprise. “What? She is what?”

“The one, Syd. I met my one true mate.”

Her mouth fell open and the tears stopped flowing. “You met your true mate?” she repeated. “When? Where? How?”

“Yesterday.”

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