Page 32 of The Forbidden Wolf

“But I do.” Sebastian crossed the threshold even though he had promised not to. “The moment I laid eyes on you, I knew I’d never know another soul better.”

“Stop.” I slammed my hand on his chest and shoved him back. into the hall. “If you knew me at all, you’d know I’d never fall for such cheap dialogue.”

“Elyse.” He clasped his hand over mine. “If it’s not true, then how did I know she wasn’t you?”

“Um, because you kept staring at me during your mateship ceremony, and then the bride walked in looking just like me? It’s not rocket science.” I jerked back my hand and poked him hard in the sternum. “You want to know what I think?”

His heart pounded beneath my fingertip. “I want to know everything you think.”

My lip curled with disgust. Did this creep have any original lines, or did he just spend all his free time memorizing empty ass greeting cards in preparation for the day he met his fated mate? Or rather, the day he tried to gaslight some gullible female into believing it was her in spite of what she felt?

“Okay. Cool.” I drew myself up to my full height and lifted my chin. “I think you planned the whole thing.”

Sebastian went very still. “Beg your pardon?”

“Yeah.” I poked him again. “I think this was all just some big power play to prove to the Bronx that our female Alpha Heir meant nothing next to you. You could claim her and then exchange her, and neither of us could do a damn thing about it. You’re no better than those monsters in the subway. You might even be worse. At least they were honest about their cruel intentions.”

Sebastian’s jaw dropped and then snapped shut with an audible clack. Fangs. His mouth bulged grotesquely with their presence, and the whites of his eyes vanished. I slammed the door in his shifting face and threw my back against it, as if I could ever hope to keep his human form out much less his wolf. I wasn’t Kiana. I hadn’t spent the last seven years training to hold my own against alphaholes like Sebastian.

“Elyse!” He banged on the wood right behind my head, setting off a firestorm of flashing lights in my peripheral vision. “Open the door! We’re not done here!”

Pain blazed in my temples, fueling the outrage in my heart. I spun around and banged right back. “Stop acting like I have a choice when your honeymoon suite only locks from the outside!”

He grunted as if my fist had struck him through the heavy wood.

“That’s not—it wasn’t—” He broke off with a growl. “Think what you want of me, but the locks were changed for your own protection.” He lowered his voice so much it barely filtered through the barrier. “I know you like to roam, Elyse, but that wouldn’t be safe right now.”

“And whose fault is that?” I shot back, hating the way my voice cracked.

“The gods,” he answered curtly. “For playing this cruel trick.”

Hot tears blurred my already spotty vision, and I pressed my sweaty palms and pounding forehead against the wood. A wave of nausea hit my empty stomach, so strong that I briefly considered opening the door to ask if sending me to bed without any supper was for my own good also. But I feared the answer would make me hurl.

“You call me your fated mate,” I said through gritted teeth. “Yet you treat me like a prisoner of war. You’re going to have to pick one or the other.”

Silence. And then the door creaked softly as Sebastian pushed away from the other side. The inner knob quivered from his hand on the outer, and I held my breath, hoping against hope that the door would ease open, and my subway hero would reappear, perhaps even offer to walk me home again so that I could make things right with my family before…

“No,” Sebastian said, turning the key until the lock clicked into place. “You are.”

Bastard! My wolf snarled, throwing my human shoulder against the door, and realizing much too late that, just like the doors back home, it was actually steel dressed up in wooden veneers. I recoiled, clutching my bruised arm as Sebastian’s footsteps padded down the hall. Leaving me. Just like everyone else.

My eyes scrunched shut, squeezing teardrops down my cheeks. I slumped against the door and kept going, sliding all the way down to the floor until my knees were folded up into my arms. I buried my face in the valley between them to muffle the first sob that racked my body. Sebastian was gone for now, but he would return as many times as it took for me to welcome him across every threshold.

Chapter Thirteen

The lock clicked on the Tower Room door, barely even loud enough to pull my head off the drool stain I’d left on the ivory sofa. I pushed up on my left elbow, wiping my wet mouth with the back of my right hand, which I only realized was still clutching the TV remote when it rammed against my nose.

“Miss Elyse?” Ruby’s muffled voice came through the crack. “Are you quite alright? I’m sorry to bother you so early, but your family sent some of your belongings—”

Slumping back on my side, I let the remote fall to the floor with a dull thump that somehow sounded like an atomic bomb going off.

The motion jostled the television back to life, and an image of Kiernan and Helena standing inside a torch-lit crypt filled one half of the screen while the other half asked if I wanted to continue to episode seven and, by the way, had I liked what I’d seen?

No, I did not want to continue because I’d finally passed out during episode six and would have to go back and watch the end, but… yeah? I think I had. Enough to sit there in my stupid pink dress for five and a half hours without a single shred of popcorn, anyway.

“Um, just a second,” I rasped.

The door stayed open only a crack. “Yes, miss.”

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