Page 100 of Just One Bite
“No. You said—”
“It’s like trying to deny gravity exists. I can feel it in my blood. It’s you. It’s always been you.”
Linked mates.Did I know it too? Denying it is easier than the truth. I did know. I’ve known for so long but didn’t want to think about it.
Because I wanted this to be real. I didn’t want that to be the reason for everything.
The reason he feels like a long-lost friend.
The reason I stopped to gawk at him the first time I saw him.
The reason the moment his skin touched me I knew that I’d been searching for him my whole life.
“You’re the one on the swing. This swing. The one in my dreams. I was meant to tell you this, right here.”
“You said you don’t remember your dreams.”
“I didn’t. But after I marked you, I remembered them all. And there’s so many … We’ve been hanging out together here in our dreams and neither of us knew.”
“You knew earlier today and you’re just now saying something?”
That explains that look.
This is too much at once. Is that why we’re here? The reason Parker held me at night and it felt so safe. The reason we got so close too fast. It’s all … a bond. Fabricated. Something told us we were meant to be together, so we fell into the pattern.
It’s not real. My heart aches at the thought.
“I wanted to be certain because I knew you didn’t want things to change.”
I shake my head. “Maybe you’re wrong …”
“Baby, you don’t get it. Iknowit’s you. You almost drowned when you were a little girl, didn’t you?”
I suck in a breath. “How …?”
“I never remembered my dreams … except for one. Someone drowning in the water.”
“No.” This isn’t happening. Parker isn’t—
“I reached for you and begged for you to live. I’ve had that dream over and over again since I was a kid, but I never saw who it was. I’d wake up in a panic not knowing if I saved them. It used to eat at me because I knew this dream meant something. But it was you. I know it was you because now I see you under the water.”
They never saw who pulled me out. No one was paying attention that day by the lake. They said I just vanished one minute. Then the next, I was on the dock gasping for breath.
“Do you not feel it?”
Parker’s voice breaks, and a lump gathers in my throat. I’m hurting him. Of course I am. This is why I should have kept him far away from me. I’m not cut out to be his mate.
He deserves more. Someone nicer. Better. Just better.
“How can I? I’m human and don’t sense the same things.” I wipe a tear.
I’ll never feel the bond like Parker does. I don’t remember the dreams. I’m standing now, staring at the swing and willing myself to remember more than a hint of familiarity. All that safety and sureness from Parker is evaporating because it was just the bond making him want me. It’s not his fault, but it hurts.
“I need to go.”
“Wait. Please.”
“No. You’re telling me that all of this … this bond between us is because of some magic thing. It’s not because … it’s not because of us. It’s not a choice.”
