Page 37 of Primal

I can’t decide what hurts worse. The rejection or the fact that, even now, some part of him still cares.

Through the agony-induced haze, his unspoken plea echoes in my mind, a relentless loop of remorse he tried so hard to conceal. A broken record that cut through the symphony of heartache he forced upon me thatmakes me question whether or not he knew.If he knew exactly what kind of physical pain he was about to inflict. If he knew the devastation his rejection would bring and still chose to do it anyway.

“Forgive me, sweet Noa. Please. Forgive me.”

His silent plea is the last thing I hear before the darkness swallows me whole. My only hope is that, within the emptiness, I will be free from the anguish he has left me to endure.

Chapter 16

Rennick

Ithought I was prepared to face the fallout of my choice, ready to stand witness as the emotional weight of rejection consumed her. I expected anger, grief, maybe even hatred. But I wasn’t prepared for this.

I had convinced myself that rejecting a mate bond would bring only emotional suffering. Pure, unrelenting heartbreak. The possibility that it would manifest as something worse, somethingphysical, never occurred to me. Standing here now, watching this horror unfold before me, forces me to see how naive I’d been in my beliefs. The ones where I assumed I would be the one to bear the brunt of it, the one to suffer the most under the weight of the bond I severed. After all, I was the one who shattered something sacred, the one who spoke those dreadful words aloud. It should be me writhing on the ground.

I should be the one being punished.

But instead, it’s her.

The devastation isn't just emotional. It’s raw and corporeal. The pain isn’t just something Noa feels, it’s something she’s enduring. It’s breaking her apart from the inside out. It’s somuch more than just grief or heartbreak. It’s deeper, something primal.

And I am the one who did this to her.

Sprawled in the dead grass, Noa’s delicate body trembles. Her cheeks, that are too pale, are wet with the tears that still fall despite submitting to unconsciousness a moment ago. I think my heart had ceased to beat in my chest when her glorious eyes, the ones that are literally plucked straight from my dreams, rolled into the back of her head. I’d lifted my foot, every instinct woven within me screaming that I needed to go to her, but her friend, the one with the icy blonde hair, had growled at me just as she’d done the first time I’d attempted to move closer.

The way the omega hadn’t hesitated to bare her fangs at me, to split the tense air with a deathly warning snarl, as her small frame had radiated unchecked fury had been impressive. It was something, under different circumstances, I may have found inspiring. I would have admired the sheer force of her strength, the way she’d refused to flinch away from an alpha male like me. It’s a behavior that’s not often shown by someone of her designation.

Even now, I can see the unshakable protectiveness for her friend in her stance, the way she guards Noa with her own body and how she treats me as a threat that cannot be allowed near the unconscious beauty in her grasp. It’s a valid belief system and something I’ve rightfully earned.

For a long moment, I can do nothing but stand here, staring at the wreckage of my own doing.

My mate, the other half of my very soul I was put on this earth to protect, lies broken before me.

The icy resolve I’d wrapped around myself, the detachment I’d fought for, is cracking beneath the weight of my own remorse. Every justification, every carefully crafted reason for this choice, is hollow against the sickening horror that is clawingthrough my chest and up my tight throat. What once felt like a righteous sacrifice feels like nothing more than a goddamn crime.

My wolf, who had fought so hard,valiantly, against the steel binds I’d wrapped around him, has gone deathly silent, but I can’t bring myself to acknowledge his absence. Not now. Not yet.

Bile rises as Noa’s beautiful face twists with pain. Even unconscious, she is not free of the suffering I’ve inflicted on her. She’s too pale, too small against the cold, unforgiving ground.

Movement catches my eye as, in my numb state, I register Rhosyn leaving her post near one of the black Escalades.

She doesn’t bother offering me a single look as she pushes past and falls to her knees beside Noa. Rhosyn doesn’t hesitate to reach out and offer her support alongside Noa’s fierce friend. The two females share a single look that lasts no more than a heartbeat, a silent understanding passing between them, before they move in sync, trying to bring the broken woman lying between them a morsel of relief.

Canaan steps up beside me, and when I turn to look at him, I know before I even meet his eyes that it’s a mistake. The disappointment on his face, the unspoken betrayal carved into every sharp line of his expression, is unbearable. I hold his gaze for only a second before I have to turn away, but the damage is already done.

I’ve lost more today than just my fated love.

“Seren,” the willowy High Priestess, who reeks of power, calls out. Her smooth but commanding voice filling the clearing. The blonde omega looks over her shoulder at the witch. “We need to get Noa home now.”

Noa’s friend,Seren, looks down at my broken mate and then back at the witch, confusion etched in her pale blue eyes when she lifts her head to glance in my direction as well. “But…” sheutters, sounding just as lost as her face reflects. “She still needs to?—”

“No,” the witch interjects. “We’re done here.”

The blonde omega and the High Priestess lock gazes, some kind of unspoken understanding passing between them, before Seren stiffly nods. “All right.”

Lowri, whose scrutiny I thought was cutting before, glares at me as she moves forward. Seren shifts to allow the Alpha female enough room to kneel beside her. Together, they position their hands beneath Noa’s prone body and begin to lift the object of my biggest sorrow from the dead grass.

The Alpha shoots Rhosyn a stern look when my second’s mate steps forward with them, reaching out in a silent offering to take some of Noa’s unconscious weight. “Let me help,” she pleads, her own heartache woven into every spoken syllable. “Please.”

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