Page 51 of Love's Ace

“It’s…” I bit back the instant denial on my tongue and took a breath to swallow it down. I had to keep a level head with this. He couldn’t know how much I wasfeeling…how real the connection between us was.

I didn’t think I could deny it anymore.

“It just makes sense, Wren. There’s every chance it would hurt you—of course it would. I can see the thread, how bright it is. But it’s notreal. I’ve heard of humans going mad when their connections are broken, when their soulmates die. You might feel that too. But you’d be here. You’d be safe. I could stay with you through the worst of it. You’d recover, and your body would go back to exactly how it was before.” Gethin’s voice was soft. Hecaredabout me, or he wouldn’t be suggesting this. I inherently knew that, but I still wanted to tell him to stop. He didn’t understand, and I didn’t know how to tell him I couldn’t go back to how it was before. Things were different. Knowing Theo made thingsdifferent.Beforewas a colorless, empty world. And now…

Now…

Gods, it was allred.

“Gethin, I don’t think I can.”

“We’re built for that. Everything I’ve read has always said we’d recover from any outside influence to our hearts and auras if we have enough time to heal.”

Our hearts.

Our auras…

But fuck, what about my soul? What about the way it stretched out even now toward the bedroom door.

The bedroom door.

It took me a second too long to realize the wrenching pain in my chest wasn’t mine alone.

My eyes snapped to him a second before I heard his angry snort. Theo stood there with his hands wrapped around his stomach and a swirl of crimson eating away at the brown of his eyes.

“Think about how much easier it would be if you just cut me out, Wren. You’d recover.”

His voice held the same malicious fury that it had when he’d first woken up, but I could see behind it now.

The pain.

The…

Fuck, the betrayal.

And I could feel how much his muscles ached. His ribs. His chest.

I couldfeelthe way he could barely breathe.

“Theo—”

“You know what? I can make it easier on you.”

I was already getting to my feet, but Gethin jerked me back roughly when Theo stalked toward us, fingers flexed into claws.

He spoke before I had a chance to, words I didn’t understand spilling from his lips. There was a popping sound, and my ears rang… then the front door slammed open and the protective runes that Gethin had in place sent Theo flying out into the rain.

Chapter 20

Theo

The jolt of painthat ripped through my body barely had a chance to register before I hit the ground hard enough to knock the air from my lungs.

It didn’t matter.

The pain didn’t matter—even the sizzling agony of whatever Gethin had done to throw me out of his house didn’t matter.

Because I could feel something worse deep in my chest.

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