Page 21 of The Forbidden Dragon King
“Give it back.” He drags the cloak off my shoulders, panting hard and clutching it in his fist. “This is why Mother and Father would never accept you. You’re athief.Do you even know how Omegas should act? Were you taught nothing about your dynamic? On the moon, is that my stolen rune magic on your dress?”
My cheeks burn with humiliation. My eyes sting with tears.
Still, I point defiantly at his bloodied spear, which I dropped on the floor. “I also took your special spear. I’m not only a thief; I’m thebest thiefin the Moon Court.”
Bard closes his eyes for a moment, before he opens them again. They’re flashing with fury, as he hurls his tattered cloak down on top of the spear.
I can sense his anger through the bond.
Good.
I hope that he can feel both my heartbreak and the hate that’s now sheeting through me where once there had only been love.
Yet was it ever true love?
I’d never known Bard, I realize that now.
I’d fallen in love with a fantasy that I’d spun in my own mind. He’d never been real.
We both stare at each other, breathing hard.
Bard is the first to look away.
“I’m the prince,” he says, quietly. “But I can never be your mate.”
“I hate you…I fucking hate you…” I say, low and heartfelt, and he winces. “But you’re the only Alpha I have.”
“I can change that.”
To my shock, Bard reaches for my wrist, snatching it before I can stop him.
He pushes his own wrist with the crescent moon soul mark against mine.
I realize what he intends to do a moment too late.
“No,” I scream. “Don’t, please, don’t…”
“I reject this bond.” Bard’s voice is flat and dead. He’s not even looking at me but only where the crescent moons are touching each other and writhing on our skin, as if the blood beneath them is bubbling up in an attempt to resist. Now, we both howl in agony. It’s like fire is burning through my blood, bones, and soul. “I reject this bond.”
“Bard,” I try one final time, as the marks bubble and burn.
Bard is sweating and holding onto me like I’m the only thing stopping him from falling to his knees.
Finally, he meets my gaze.
I feel the man’s emotions who I’ve spent my entire life dreaming would be my Alpha for a single moment longer — regret.
Then he whispers, “I reject this bond.”
It’s like a barrier slamming down between us forever, cutting off our emotions and souls.
“No…” I weep.
My inner Omega howls in devastation at being rejected by her Alpha.
I have never felt so alone.
When Bard finally lets go of my wrist, both our knees buckle and we crash to the floor. I cradle my wrist, staring at the ugly scar where once the pretty moon tattoo had been.
