Page 14 of Ancient Promises

“That’s cool.”

He’d tell her all about the new guy when he got home. For now, he had to wait for Breaker. “I’ll see you in a little while.”

“I can’t wait.”

Ending the call, he walked out into the bar and found Eivross hunched over like a heavy weight was on his shoulders. Mate-denial could do that to a male.

“Do you want to talk about Diem?”

“No.”

“All right. Breaker is on his way. He’ll show you around. We’ll probably meet around dinnertime with the security team so you can get to know everyone. I’ll reach out to Breaker when I have things set up.”

He nodded. “Thank you for your hospitality.”

“You’re welcome. I hope you figure things out.”

“There isn’t anything to figure out. I’m not anyone’s mate.”

Rehlik didn’t say anything to that, because what the hell could he say anyway? It might seem crazy to him that Eivross would deny having a mate, but he clearly had his reasons, whatever they might be. It wasn’t really Rehlik’s place to try to push people together, and hell, they’d had a similar situation recently between Cymbre and Ivar, but they’d ended up together.

Hopefully whatever Eivross had against being with his truemate would end so they could be together. Because there was nothing better than finding the other half of your heart.

* * *

Diem didn’t really know what to do. She’d been speaking with Jair about the damage to the door when she saw Eivross come out of the bar. She’d been elated at first, but then he purposely walked away from her without coming to even say hello, and she’d known in her gut that something was wrong. A text from Rehlik a few moments later told her the ache in her stomach was on to something:He doesn’t want to see you, Diem, I’m sorry. I’m not sure what’s going on with him, but he may just need some time to come to terms with being exiled and in a new place.

She’d stared at the text until her vision blurred as her eyes filled with tears, and then she closed the message and put her phone in the pocket of her dress.

“I’m sorry, Jair, what did you say?”

“Whoa, you okay?” he asked, his brows furrowing.

A tear escaped and she brushed it away with shaking fingers. “I’m fine, I promise. What’s up with the door?”

“Aside from it being entirely ripped off the hinges?” he asked with a grin.

“Yeah.”

“Well, the whole door frame needs to be replaced, along with the door. The glass didn’t shatter, which is a miracle, but there’s a huge crack in the center, so it’s trash. I’ll grab my dad and we’ll run up to the home improvement store and get what we need to fix it. We should be able to get the repairs done today.”

“Oh, that’s awesome, thanks.”

“Well, we don’t want to leave you without a door.” He finished taking measurements. “I’ll be back in an hour or so.”

“Thanks, Jair.”

“You bet.”

After he walked away, she stood alone in the bookstore, next to the ruins of the front door. She stared at the bar across the street, her wolf wanting her to go and confront the male who was her truemate and find out what his problem was, but she couldn’t. Because people always left. Her mom had taken one look at her upon her birth and dropped her off with her father.

Diem believed in happily ever afters, but not really for herself.

So while she was devastated that Eivross didn’t want anything to do with her, she actually wasn’t surprised. He’d have left her eventually, she was sure, because that’s what she expected of people who were supposed to love her.

Her dad had never left her, but she’d been forced to leave him through the exile. So even someone whodidlove her and want to be with her hadn’t been able to.

It was a sad and sucky situation.

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