Page 90 of Emerald Flame
The pain in his head sliced straight down to his heart and cut the damn organ in half.
He rose up off the bench, mouth wide. He was grateful he’d made certain his quarters were sound proof because a howl left his throat that sounded like nothing he’d ever heard before. His howls hit the walls and rang in his ears creating an echo that increased the pain in his head.
He hurt into the soles of his feet, the marrow of his bones.
What came to him, ringing back with each new howl was the certainty he’d lost the only woman he’d loved in the past eight years.
He loved Kiara.
He loved her.
Dammit, he needed her. The past few days, working beside her, sharing his storm power with her in bed or in battle had forged a bond he didn’t want to break. It might not be the permanent alpha bond, but it was there, something only the two of them had ever shared.
For his own sanity and to give fuller expression to his grief, he needed to let his wolf come. He went to his private track below his bedroom. He’d built it with plenty of head clearance for leaping and two dozen massive boulders to break up the monotony of the otherwise oval space with sand for a path.
With a single thought and eight years of practice, he shifted into his wolf form.
He made two circuits and landed on the tallest pile of boulders then howled again. The same strained resonance continued as he gave full voice to his grief.
Kiara was gone.
She’d left him to save him.
He knew it was the right thing to do as well, but he felt ripped in two. He’d lost the best part of himself when she’d walked out the door.
He ran for an hour, howled then ran some more.
When he’d exhausted himself, he ordered a meal to be brought to his room, showered then made the decision to see Tonya for himself. If there was any way that he could ask her about what she’d seen in the future, he had to try.
~ ~ ~
Kiara found herself standing in front of the grotto pool in her refuge and staring into the water without any sense of how she’d gotten there. She sighed like she was throwing a boulder off her chest.
She was doing the right thing. There could be no question about that. According to what Tonya had seen in the future, if Kiara stayed anywhere near Warren, her presence would somehow draw Glissane to her and Warren would be killed.
She could ensure Warren’s safety while ending a relationship that had spiraled out of control. She loved him, she always would, but he couldn’t bring a witch into his pack.
She leaned over the edge of the pool and watched as her tears fell into the dark water and created ripple after ripple. The small waves distorted her face but reflected perfectly the state of her heart.
A sob caught in her chest. She swore it got stuck over her heart and created so much pressure she was sure something inside her would physically break.
Her knees gave way and she dropped to the floor beside the edge of the pool. She bent her arms over the stone seat and began to cry. She felt as she had the night she’d entered Five Bridges, her first night as analterwitch. She’d had to say good-bye to her human life and it was a pain like nothing she could have ever predicted.
She’d savored her time with Warren. But right now, as her soul turned inside out from the loss of his companionship, she wished she’d never met him, or worked beside him or shared his bed.
She’d known her future with him was a non-starter in the first place. She’d also stupidly thought that having sex with him would be a lovely memory she could cherish. Instead, she’d given her heart to him in the process and the thought she could never be with him again made her weep harder still.
