Page 77 of Owned By Two

I had ground my teeth, turned, and marched away.

I had come to take Lizzy downstairs to dinner, one of the few ways I would get to enjoy her before I left.

Blor attempted to make idle chit chat but I didn’t listen.

I was too busy trying to block out the memory of his grunts and Lizzy’s cries of ecstasy.

When she finally arrived in the dining hall, I was pleased to see her in full splendor wearing the dress I’d tailor-made especially for her.

I’d never been interested in fashion until I discovered I had a real skill in dressing males — as I had designed and dressed her father too, who always loved my creations.

“Look the part, feel the part,” he always used to say.

I was pleased I got to see her wearing the dress, even if it was only once.

When she touched my arm and kissed me on the cheek, I couldn’t help but look over her head at Blor on the other side of the table.

No doubt he felt put out and adrift.

I could see evenhisintellect had worked out there was something between us that he had, until that moment, not been privy to.

Lizzy made her toast and we joined in the chorus:

“A happy and fulfilling future,” I said, knowing there would be no such thing for me.

Not without Lizzy.

I had always believed she would be my fated mate.

Now, everything was ruined.

Earlier when I had climbed from the shower, I checked myself in the mirror.

I looked as I had the day before, the week before, even the year before…

But something about me was different now.

Something had been stripped from me, something invisible that no one but I could see…

Mysoul.

Myspirit.

It had been taken from me and I would never get it back.

I had been so certain Lizzy was my fated mate, so certain the Joisa I saw at the base of her spine marked her as mine that I had been blind to any other explanation.

I had been wrong.

In the bathroom, my eyes drifted down and I had begun to turn around, to peer at my back to check if the Joisa was really there or not…

But at the last moment, I turned back to face myself.

I was afraid I would see nothing but an empty patch of skin and there would be no Joisa, no hope.

Nothing.

And that, more than anything, terrified me.

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