Chapter 68
Chapter 68
Kaeleen’s POV
The slam of her bedroom door echoed in the silence of the house. Or maybe it was just echoing in my head. I stood frozen in the middle of the living room, the space where she had been standing just moments ago now feeling like a gaping, cold void.
My lips still tingled with the phantom weight of hers. I could still taste her, a faint, sweet flavor like the tea she drank, mixed with something wild and uniquely her. For one perfect, stupid moment, I had thought it was the beginning of everything. That everything was going to change. That this moment would be different from the others but then I saw her eyes.
The sheer panic in them. It was a look I had sworn to myself I would never, ever be the cause of. The same look she had on her face when she had come to me the night she had escaped from Leon. The night when he had tried to take advantage of her.
"Idiot," I breathed into the empty room, the word tasting like ash. "You’re a fucking idiot, Kaeleen."
I ran a hand through my hair, gripping the strands tightly as if the physical pain could distract from the self-loathing in my gut. What had I been thinking? I had seen her pain, heard the story of her trauma. I saw it again when he came over and tried to take her back. I knew thatm I saw it all but at the end what did I do? The second she showed me a moment of vulnerability, of strength, I pushed. I took.
’No, you didn’t,’ a low voice rumbled in my mind. It was Ryker, my wolf, his own confusion and frustration bubbling to the surface. ’She is our mate. She responded. She tasted like home. It was right.’
"It wasn’t right," I muttered back, pacing the length of the room. "Look what it did to her. She looked terrified."