27. The Breaking Point.

ROSE POV

His words struck like impact .... heavy, direct, merciless.

No. I don’t love you.

The world should have shattered.

Collapsed.

Caved in.

But instead, everything was still frozen....the room suspended around us like a painting. Daniel still mid-blink. Caleb frozen in breath.

And I was frozen too .... but not by magic.

By pain.

Pain that spread slowly first .... like ink seeping into paper .... then rapidly, burning through everything inside me.

I swallowed, but my throat didn’t work.

My lips parted, but no sound came.

He looked at me with eyes that didn’t match his voice. His eyes looked older. Tired. Haunted.

But the voice....the voice was sharp.

“Do not misunderstand,” Adrian said, cold and precise. “Everything that happened between us was nothing more than accident and weakness...we we're both vulnerable ”

Weakness.

The word stabbed.

He continued, as if determined to break every part of me:

“It was not supposed to happen. It meant nothing. I do not....”

his jaw tightened, like the next words cost him something,

“....feel anything for you.”

I felt something deep inside me splinter.

“But…” I tried to breathe, tried to speak, tried to hold myself together. “That night....”

“That night,” he cut in, “was a mistake.”

The words slammed into me so hard my knees almost gave out.

His expression did not change.

“I cannot afford distraction. Not from you. Not from a human.”

His tone sharpened:

“And especially not one who knows nothing about my world and has no place in it.”

My fingers trembled at my sides, but I steadied myself.

“Why are you saying this?” My voice cracked. “I felt something. I know you did too. You....”

“I felt nothing,” he said.

But his eyes flickered .... once .... just once ..... and I saw the truth.

Was he lying?.

Yet he continued.

“I cannot lower myself to bond with a human. It is taboo. You don't have a place in my world, you won't survive it.”

My heart squeezed so painfully I thought I might collapse.

“And you shouldn’t want it either,” he added. “You should forget it. Forget me. Forget everything.”

I stared at him, disbelieving.

He held my gaze for a long moment.... and then he said the one thing I was not prepared to hear.

“I can wipe your memory of me. Permanently this time. You won't remember me, the wolves, anything. You’ll go back to your insignificant life, unbothered.”

My chest constricted.

“I can make it so none of this ever happened.”

The tears came before I could stop them.

Silent.

Hot.

Bitter.

I looked at him .... really looked.... and the realization cut deeper than any wound:

So he doesn't care.... Or does he.. is he pretending to not not care?.

I could see it now ..... in the tension of his jaw, in the strain in his shoulders, in the cracks behind his eyes.

He was trying to push me away to "protect" me.

But his protection was destroying me.

“Why?” I whispered, voice thin. “Why are you doing this to me?”

ADRIAN POV

Her tears.

Her voice.

Her trembling.

Everything in me roared to go to her.

My wolf clawed at the walls of my restraint, howling her name, demanding I take her in my arms and tell her the truth.

That I did feel something.

Something strong.

Dangerous.

Unavoidable.

But I couldn’t.

If she stayed in my world .... she’d die.

Not maybe.

Not possibly.

Certainly.

And I would rather she hate me.... than bury her.

So I did the one thing that shattered me to do:

I stepped closer.

Slow. Controlled.

Like a predator closing distance.

Her breath hitched.

Her tears fell harder.

Good.

Hurt me.

Hate me.

Run from me.

Be safe.

I reached out ....my hand hovering toward her waist ...

But she moved first.

ROSE POV

His hand came toward me .... slow ..... as if he meant to hold me again.

Something inside me snapped.

I shoved him .....hard .... with both hands.

He stepped back a fraction, surprised.

The sharp sound of my palm connecting with his cheek echoed through the frozen room.

The slap burned across my hand.

It burned across my heart.

“Stop,” I choked out, voice shaking, breath hitching, vision blurred. “Stop using me like I’m some… some pawn in whatever twisted war you’re fighting.”

His eyes widened .... not in anger .... but in pain.

Which only hurt worse.

“You don’t get to do this,” I whispered, fists trembling. “You don’t get to touch me and protect me and break me and act like none of it matters.”

My chest rose and fell rapidly.

“No more.”

My voice was raw now ..... a whisper scraped into shape from broken pieces.

“You asked me to stay away? Fine.”

My voice steadied .....painfully calm.

“I’ll stay away. I won’t bother you again.”

I stepped back from him.

He didn’t move.

I turned toward the door.

And the moment I took my first step ....

The world unfroze.

The air snapped back.

Sound rushed in.

Voices resumed mid-speech.

Everything continued like nothing had happened.

Except everything had.

I didn't look back.

I didn’t speak.

I just walked out of the room.....and left him standing there with the silence he created.