ROMAN’S POV “I’ll never do anything to harm you.” That is the last thing I said to Eldora last night before she cried herself to sleep in my arms. “When did you braid my hair?” She whispers the next morning. “You finally noticed.” My lips are warm against her forehead, she snuggles closer. I merged the makeshift bed I made for her from plump leaves of a Koha tree with our sleeping bags for maximum comfort. Tonight we should be in our own beds. My heart sinks at the thought. I want to spend more time with her but she probably wants to go home to a proper shower and bed. “How do you even know how to braid?” “My mom taught me…” Normally, I wouldn’t even bring her up but I want Eldora to know my story too. “Before she disappeared.” I twirl a loose strand of silver hair in my hand. It is soft and silky despite the fact that it hasn’t received proper care for almost a week now. “Disappeared?” She moves out of my embrace to look up at me. I nod. “One day she just got up and left with
“Then what did you mean by that?” An explanation is on the tip of my tongue but what I don’t want to sound like I’m giving an excuse. I never meant to hurt her… I will die a million deaths before I even imagine doing so. She turns away with a huff. “Look, I’ve been fine on my own all this while and I will continue to do so without you. So hurry up and reject me because I can’t keep hanging in the balance waiting for something that might never happen.” The bond thrums in my chest. I feel how the words quake, she is uncertain about my emotions for her. She wants them to be real but she can’t bring herself to believe that they actually could be. She keeps rambling as I cross the distance between us in short strides. At first I thought there was nothing I could give her that Fredrick hadn’t already tainted, I was willing to bid my time to have her trust me and know I would never lead her down that path he did but that will take a much longer time than I am willing to spare. I was wr
Squashed my head…As if a bomb goes off in my head, all my questions and doubts settle into one thin line. Immediately, I made my decision concerning the whole thing.“So…” I keep my expression neutral. “What now?”“What now?” Her voice is strained. I gather the coal together and arrange the wood I picked out earlier to start a fire as evening begins to rear its head. This is a routine I’ve fallen into the past few days when Eldora was unconscious since it is a lot colder at night out here. “Yes. What now?”She frowns then looks away, thinking to herself as I watch. The flames crackle in between us, lighting the cave up the darker it gets outside.“You said you wanted to murder them. Is that still your plan?” I ask a more direct question.“If I am being honest, I still want to…” Eldora comes closer to the fire, sitting across from me. I wonder if she’s noticed I braided her hair into two to keep it from tangling. It would have been a hassle to get out three days worth of bed hair in
ROMAN’S POVWhenever Eldora starts to speak, her eyes cloud over like she isn’t here. I can’t tell what she’s seeing but every word of hers carries strong emotions, I can feel a part of the pain through the mate bond even though she is trying to suppress the bond. I can feel everything. I want to go to her and hold her tight but I saw the way she looked at me earlier. She doesn’t trust me.It’s understandable. The person she was married to and thought she knew turned out to be that much of a monster. How about me? What chance do I stand? A person she hasn’t known for long. Eldora has shared everything with Fredrick. What change could I possibly make? What can I say to ease her worries?What do I have that she hasn’t already experienced with Fredrick? Will I ever be of help to my mate?I want to smash his head into a rock and slaughter all his friends for daring to scar what is mine so badly. I didn’t even get a chance to meet her in her past life.This one has to be different.The p
“Eldora…” Roman’s voice is full of concern when I turn to him. I have been so immersed in my memory that I didn’t realize how long I’ve been speaking.The sun is at its highest and Roman has moved a little closer. My heart is caught in my chest, I can still feel the fear and anger and betrayal bubbling up from the past.“You don’t have to keep talking.” There is a certain emotion in his eyes that I can’t place. Those hard rubies almost appear fragile.I want to stop talking. How much longer do I have to speak before I get all of this out? I feel like a blackened glass of water that is under a rushing tap. The darkness keeps spilling out–seemingly endless.“You’re shaking…” He glances at my shoulders then my hands. I hide my fingers but there is nothing I can do about my shoulders.“I’m fine. I need to remember everything.” My gaze drops to my thighs before I can delude myself that he cares too.Fredrick cared.Well, he seemed to. You can never know what a person is thinking until th
I don’t know what they did but I lost all memory of that event. Everything went back to normal. It was a few weeks after that Becca moved into town. She lived in their hometown before all this. She was lovely. Tall, bright smile, sharp grey eyes, beautiful blonde hair. Straight out of a modeling magazine. We couldn’t have been more different. I was working a lot so I had less and less time to put effort into myself. I remember feeling intimidated by her a lot of times but Fredrick would always say I was a different kind of beautiful or I was being paranoid so I shouldn’t compare myself to her. I listened. Then I tuned out every thought like that because it didn’t help further Fredrick’s goal to bring the pack to the top. I focused on pouring myself into work. It was a lot at some point. However, three years after we got married, we did it! Well… I did it and Fredrick helped a bit. Debts were settled. Bankruptcy was as nullified and we were finally able to start storing profits fro