“But it did happen again. And again. Each time, he’d find a way to make it about the mate bond. I was disrespecting our connection, I was being ungrateful for the gift the goddess had given us. The bond that was supposed to protect me became the weapon he used to
control me.“.
I can feel Tristan trembling with barely controlled fury, can hear the low growl building in his chest. His wolf is close to the surface, responding to the threat against his pack, his family.
“The last time…” I have to stop, the memory too painful. There’s so much I’m not telling him, so much I can never tell him.
Like how I’d lost our pup two months before our mating ceremony. How Daxon had kicked me so hard in the stomach the day I had caught him cheating, that I’d miscarried our child right there on the bathroom floor.
How I’d finally found the strength to say no to him on what should have been our wedding night.
But I can’t tell Tristan that. I can see the barely contained rage in his eyes already, can feel the fury radiating from his wolf. If he knew about the pup, if he knew just how much Daxon had taken from me, I’m afraid of what he might do. I’m afraid he’d hunt Daxon down and kill him, consequences be damned.
And as much as I hate Daxon, as much as I want him to pay for what he did to me, I can’t be responsible for Tristan destroying his own
life in pursuit of revenge.
“The last time, he found out I’d been saving money. Just a little bit here and there, money I’d hidden away in case of emergencies. He said I was planning to leave him, that I was being deceitful and ungrateful.”
I pull back slightly so I can look at Tristan’s face, needing to see his reaction, needing to know that he still sees me as worthy of love despite everything I’m telling him.
“He beat me so badly that I couldn’t get out of bed for three days. The next day, he kept apologizing, like he always did.”
Tristan’s face is a mask of controlled rage, his dark eyes burning with an intensity that should scare me but doesn’t. Because I know that anger isn’t directed at me. It’s for me, on my behalf, and that makes all the difference.
“That’s when I finally found the courage to leave. But I couldn’t just run away, Tristan. The mate bond was like a chain around my soul. Every step I took away from him felt like agony.”
“Why didn’t you come home?” Tristan asks, his voice hoarse with emotion. “Why didn’t you call Orion or me? We would have come for you. We would have protected you.”
The question I’ve been dreading, the one I’ve asked myself a thousand times. Why didn’t I reach out to the people who loved me? Why did I suffer alone when I had a pack who would have moved heaven and earth to keep me safe?
But how could I explain that coming home meant facing him? Meant seeing the man who’d broken my heart just as thoroughly as Daxon
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18:27 Fri, Jan 2 d
Chapter 22
broken my tony? How cold 1st 1
hitory san!
Because I was ashamed, I whisper,
hering ser weak, no stupid. Because thought cold fix sysalist has of my w
Fresh tears spill down ry cheeks as I quite the feat that’s been a
‘ toid everyone I was going away to heal, to find rel
knowing I’d failed so completely?‘
Tristan cups my face in his hands, forcing me to look at him, to really see the love and acceptance in his eyes.
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Sara Lili is a daring romance writer who turns icy landscapes into scenes of fiery passion. She loves crafting hot love stories while embracing the chill of Iceland’s breathtaking cold.
