I wait for the others to leave before turning back to Elden, curious as to what he truly wants to talk about. I don’t think it’s just about my mate.
“Tony,” he says, and his voice is surprisingly soft. I instantly know what this is about!
I can’t hold back and roll my eyes. “I can’t believe it… Dad told you?”
“He is very worried,” Elden says, and he doesn’t sound upset at my attitude at all. “Also, he knows that my lycan and I have experience mending relationships with our wolf spirits.” He pauses. “I know you are battling a lot of things, Anthony. I won’t manipulate you to reconcile with your lycan by telling you the usual things… how this young woman is your lycan’s mate too, and you need to be considerate. You don’t need to be considerate, not at all. You just need to be honest, and if you feel like you aren’t ready for this yet, we can get up now and leave it for another day.”
I keep sitting in front of him, battling my emotions for a while… for a long while, actually. The minutes are dripping by. “You’re going to tell my father about it and—”
“No,” Uncle Elden interrupts me. “I told him beforehand that whatever you tell me will stay between us.”
“And he agreed?” I ask, surprised.
Elden smiles a bit. “He is a father. He just wants the best for his son.”
Again, silence engulfs us. “We don’t have issues… Lysander—I mean my lycan and I. We just don’t talk to each other.”
He looks at me sadly. “I know you are hurt.”
“He left me alone when I needed him the most. He just disappeared, and no matter how much I begged and cried, he wouldn’t even stir,” I spat out bitterly. “He left me alone to deal with Corinne’s parents, her funeral, my grief… everything.”
“Corinne?” Elden asks carefully.
“She was my first mate. I met her after we freed Blood Snow. She died the exact moment I met her,” I answer shortly, the familiar feeling of guilt and grief washing over me. I don’t know why I am even telling him. I wanted to tell Dalila because she is my second chance mate and deserves to know the truth, but now it feels like the secret is overwhelming me more and more, and I just want to share it with someone.
Uncle Elden stares at me in sincere shock. “What…”
“And I had nowhere to retreat to. I had to get up every day and pretend my life was still okay like the Goddess didn’t just rip my mate’s life out of my hands. I had nowhere to go and to hide. I had to continue living. I know he lost his mate too, and it was his way of healing,” I say, the words just leaving me all of a sudden. “But it’s not fair. I will not prevent him from connecting to Dalila… we will mark her when she is ready, and he can do whatever he wants, but I just don’t want to be part of it.”
“It doesn’t make sense for the Goddess to do anything like that,” he says with a frown. “Tony, I know this won’t help you now, but I doubt this was her plan.”
“Maybe,” I mutter without feeling convinced.
“Does Henry know?”
I shake my head. “Only Dalila knows… I felt I needed to tell her everything before accepting her as my mate and binding my soul to hers.”
“And she took it well?”
“She is perfect,” I whisper.
“Have you talked to Lysander ever since you met her?”
I furrow my brows. “No, and I don’t intend to. The asshole goes completely MIA on me like I don’t mean a thing to him and only pops up the moment we smell our second chance mate. But you know what, Uncle Elden, he didn’t help me with Corinne, and I didn’t need his help with Dalila either! It might not have gone as planned with the way she found out about our world, but I was there for her, I talked to her, and I managed to win her over. It was all me!” I feel my eyes fill with tears, and I hate myself for being so weak.
Elden gets up and walks around his desk, kneeling next to me now and squeezing my shoulder. “I know losing her hurt you, and being shunned by your lycan made it hurt even more. There is no logical reason for how your mate was ripped out of your life, and there is no excuse for the way your lycan left you alone in your grief.”
“What am I supposed to do now?” I mutter.
“What do you want to do?”
“I want to be left alone by Lys,” I admit. “I just want a while to settle my thoughts.”
“Okay, that’s reasonable.” Elden nods, squeezing my shoulder again. “Tony, I want you to take the blockade down. Lysander will disturb you as little as possible, but try to keep it down. It’s not just for him. It’s also better for you.”
“Fine,” I mutter. “But if he gets on my nerves, it’s back up.”
“Do it now,” Elden urges.