When the Alpha Lost His Human Childhood Sweetheart
The pain of a mate's rejection was far worse than any torture.
I knelt, but I didn't reach out to him.
"Death would be a mercy, Slade," I said softly, my own heart a calm, empty sea. "And you haven't earned it."
"You will live. You will live with the pain of this rejection, with endless regret, in a world without me, for a very, very long time."
"This is your punishment."
I stood up and took Julian's arm.
He had been standing by, watching the whole drama unfold, but he hadn't said a word from beginning to end.