Page 40 of Forsaking His Mate

I swallow down my emotions, feeling her pain mixed with my own. It’s almost overwhelming.

“Would it help if I told you I’m sorry?”

She doesn’t look at me, her eyes locked on the lapping waters of the lake. “Not even a little bit.”

I blow out a breath as my wolf whines, wanting her to accept us, but I know I can’t fix this in one conversation. I have to get her to trust me again.

“Tessa, I’m sorry. I thought what I was doing was for the best—”

Tessa’s head snaps around. “You can’t undo what you’ve done.” She thumps her fist over her chest. “You can’t fix the pain in here.”

An ugly feeling spreads through me, one that tells me I might have lost her and that realization has my stomach twisting.

Tears fill her eyes and my veins fill with acid.

“I want to try.”

Mine.

She’s mine. This close to her, my need for her is flaring wildly. I want her, just as I did in the cabin when I marked her as mine.

I want to push her down and plunge into her tight pussy. I want to show her I own her, but I hold still because I can sense the rage rolling off her in thick waves.

Tessa laughs at my words, but there is no lightness in it. It is filled with misery. “I’m not a toy you get to take out of the box when you want to play.”

“I know that—”

“Leave me alone, Abel.”

She pushes to her feet and storms past me. I watch as she crosses toward her cabin.

Fuck.

Scrubbing a hand across my face, I know I have to push this if I’m ever going to have a chance with her.

I stalk after her, my heart racing, my thoughts jumbled.

I twist the handle and it doesn’t open when I shove it. She’s locked me out.

I close my eyes and lean my head against the frame, knowing she’s on the other side of the wood, but out of my grasp.

I want to tear it off its hinges, but I force calm into my body and return to my cabin.

Over the next week,I do everything I can to show Tessa I’ve changed. I go to the main house for meals,even though it hurts to be so close to her without having her.

She studiously ignores me, even when I talk to her directly. I don’t blame her cold shoulder, especially when I see the bruises on her throat as well as the claiming mark.

I try not to doubt Hester’s assertion that we’re meant to be together, but when I see those marks, it’s hard to focus on that fact. I would rather die than hurt her.

On the third night after dinner, after ignoring me the entire evening, she gets her jacket, shrugging into it.

I grab mine too and she narrows her eyes at me. “What are you doing?”

I don’t usually leave with her, but as winter draws closer it’s dark outside early and I don’t want her trailing across the sanctuary alone.

Roux and Apryle exchange glances, but Hester watches me intently, waiting to see what I’ll do, no doubt.

“I’m walking you home,” I say.

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