This app is on my last nerve but you all have been so good to me and it would be unfair to leave you hanging. So I'll post three chapters today. Since it's the weekend tomorrow, I'll try to write as much as I can so I can give multiple updates. Hopefully I can write enough to last for next week. Thank you for reading.
RayneShe whirled around, eyes blazing. “Don’t you dare play the victim.”Her words hit me like a slap. She leaned closer, face contorted with anguish.“You know it’s more than that. You ruined my life!”“I’m trying to fix it, dammit!” My voice cracked. “Why won’t you just give me a chance?!”“Because you don’t fucking deserve one!”Her scream echoed in the room. My strength nearly dissipated.I’m not sure I was breathing anymore.“Amber, I swear to you.” My voice cracked under the weight of everything I’d buried. “I swear on my mother—I didn’t shut the bond just to punish you. I did it out of guilt and fear. I was hurt and scared and I took it out on you. We were young and we hurt the person we both cared about. I thought I was doing right by him. I just wanted to make amends, but everything was so complicated—”“You still marked and then dumped me,” she snapped, eyes glistening with a rage I couldn’t even begin to touch. “That still happened. That still destroyed me.” Her words were
RayneThat last sentence hit me like a blow.“What?!” I sucked in a breath, my whole body tense.“I’m not having this conversation right now,” Eden muttered, pulling away slightly like he was hiding something. “Our mate is right in front of you. Focus. Prove to her that we’re here to stay. That we won’t stop until we’ve earned her forgiveness.”I stepped forward, cautiously, wanting nothing more than to soothe her.Her eyes were swollen, cheeks stained with tears, and yet there was still fury in her gaze. That icy wall she’d built was high, and I was standing at the bottom, looking up, knowing I’d built it brick by brick.I sank to my knees in front of her. Amber flinched—but she didn’t move away. She didn’t stop me when I reached out and gently wiped the tears from her cheeks. She just stared at me with those trembling lashes and those eyes—those eyes—still full of bitterness, still swimming with pain that made my stomach churn.“I know I’ve hurt you in more ways than I can count,” I
Rayne I didn’t know what hurt more: the pain in her voice… or the fact that everything she said was true.It was like her words sliced through my chest, piece by piece, until there was nothing left but a hollow, crumbling thing where my heart used to be. I just stood there, staring at her, at the tears on her face, the way her lip trembled when she tried to look away from me, like she couldn’t bear to even see me anymore.How had it come to this?After that beautiful but disastrous night we shared—after she’d opened herself to me, body and soul, after we made love—I’d shut the bond. Not because I didn’t care. Not because I wanted to hurt her. I did it because I couldn’t breathe through the guilt. Because every time that bond thrummed with her warmth and scent and light, it reminded me of my betrayal to Reed. It screamed at me that I’d cheated. That I was unfaithful. That I was weak.Fated mates were supposed to be rare. Ethereal. Sacred. But falling in love… that held its own kind of
Rayne Amber’s jaw clenched. Her expression darkened. Her voice was steady, but each word stabbed like glass into my chest.“Why now? Why do you suddenly feel the need to uphold your so-called responsibilities now?” She asked, chin raised, eyes sharp and unflinching. “I’m not perfect and I won’t hold you to impossible standards but I could have sworn you’d choose death over me. What changed?”And I—I didn’t know.I opened my mouth… and closed it again.Silence stretched between us.Because she wasn’t wrong.Back then, twenty-year-old me would’ve never chosen her. I’d been so deep in my blind devotion to Reed, so warped by loyalty and lies, that the idea of putting Amber first hadn’t even been a blip in my mind.So what had changed?I stared down at the floor, her question echoing louder inside me than it had in the room. When had the shift started? Was it when I saw Evalie for the first time? When Amber showed up in court with that fire in her eyes? When she saved my life? Or when I
Rayne Amber stirred.I was standing by the bed, watching her. I hadn’t moved in over an hour. My back ached, my legs were stiff, and my heart hadn’t calmed since I carried her in here. But the moment her body shifted slightly, a soft murmur slipping past her lips, I snapped into motion. I quickly took a seat at the edge of the bed, careful not to jostle her, but close enough to be there when her eyes opened.And then they did.Those eyes. Those gorgeous blue eyes that haunted my dreams. She blinked, slow and groggy, her brow furrowing in confusion. Her gaze landed on me—just for a second—and then darted away to take in her surroundings.Her bedroom.Realization crashed over her face like a tidal wave, and the confusion instantly melted into fury.“What the hell are you doing here?” she snapped, sitting up abruptly despite the weakness still clouding her features. “Who the hell gave you permission to come into my home?”Her voice was sharper than a blade, slicing right through the car
RayneOnce the door was blocked, I staggered back toward the bed like a man possessed.My body was a cage of fire. The second I reached the mattress, I ripped the rest of my clothes off and flung them with a snarl, too far gone to care where they landed. I fumbled for the remote on the nightstand and blasted the air conditioning to max, but even the arctic gust that hit my burning skin barely made a dent in the inferno boiling underneath.I was drenched in sweat. My skin radiated heat like I was melting from the inside out.I collapsed onto the bed—heaving, panting—my cock straining hard against my belly, angry and red and leaking, pulsing like a separate, desperate heartbeat. My balls were swollen tight with unreleased cum, so heavy it made my thighs ache. The urge to rut, to fuck, to knot, to breed… it was so powerful I could feel it thrumming in my teeth.My canines throbbed, aching to tear, to claim, to own.And still—I didn’t touch myself.I couldn’t. Wouldn’t.Because what I want