Page 27 of Forsaken

The silence that follows echoes around my empty thoughts waiting on his reaction to fill me up.

He curls his fingers into my shirt, and my heart skips a beat. My skin flares to life, burning under the sudden tension between us.

I sneak my hand up, resting my own against his chest. I sense double heartbeats—his and his wolf’s—and close my eyes. My wolf reaches out, as does his. There’s a connection between us. Two live wires coming together eagerly. They draw closer and closer. My heart beats his name as if it’s my own personal cheering section.

Sean. Sean. Sean.

“Kiss me,” I say. In my head, we’re already there. We’ve given in, letting fate connect us in the way we should.

“I. Can’t,” he breathes out.

My eyes snap open. He’s already disassociated himself with me, peering in the complete opposite direction. The moment is lost. We’re just two shifters sitting in a room together with a whole bunch of baggage between us again. “Sean....”

He shakes his head, putting some distance between us.

My wolf howls inside me. At the same time, my heart hardens. I run my hands through my hair and sit back on the couch. “You know what you’re doing to me, then. You might as well fill out the fucking paperwork and be done with it.”

“Mia,” he growls.

“No,” I snap. “Put me out of my damn misery. I don’t want to live in the unknown. Just do it and be done with it.”

“I can’t do that to you.”

“Are you...fucking stupid? You’re doing it to me. You don’t think that the year we spent apart hasn’t been the worst in my life? You kept me there. Away from my pack. Away from my mate. Away from everything I’m supposed to be assured that I have. Do you realize how inhumane Greystone Academy is?”

“It’s the rules,” he says, gaining some of his composure back. I don’t know how he’s able to put up barriers like that, like I don’t matter one iota when I felt his freaking wolf through his chest….

Shaking my head, I sigh. “You’ve been in your own personal hell, haven’t you? Constantly barricading your wolf away. I know he wants me. I felt it. He’s probably thumping in that cage you put him in right now, isn’t he? He feels her,” I say, pointing to my chest. “He feels me. Just give in.”

“No,” he bites out.

Raking my gaze over him as he looms over the arm of the couch again, I continue, “You can’t fight fate. Your wolf has been telling you that, hasn’t he? When he takes control, do you find yourself coming for me? Have you even let him out?”

Fur ripples up and down Sean’s arm. It sprouts on his face as his jaw clenches. His fingers turn to claws, and he moves like a contortionist, bones breaking until his clothes rip at the seams. Pieces scatter everywhere, and amongst them is Sean’s wolf.

Gripping the couch cushions between my fingers, I watch him as my heart fissures down the center. I peer into the wolf’s eyes and know those are the same I held onto that day during my first shift. The point at which gravity kept me grounded.

“There you are,” I say, voice breaking.

He moves over to me, popping his head against my palm, nudging me. I run my fingers over his fur and around his ears. He starts licking me, his thick, bumpy tongue kissing the inside of my wrist. I smile through tears.

He’s a beautiful brown wolf with a spot of white on his forehead and chest. I bend at the waist, and he places his head on my shoulder, chest heaving. A sound of displeasure rumbles through its chest, and it kills me inside to know that this wolf has been there this whole time—stuck inside him.

I recline backward on the couch, and Sean’s wolf follows, placing his head on my knee. He stares up at me with golden eyes, and I can’t help but ask, “You’re fighting him, aren’t you?”

He nods.

“I wish you could tell me what his problem is.”

He licks his lips but just stares, unable to give me all the answers I need.

I blink, a sudden thought making me gasp. “If I shift, maybe I can hear you.”

I stand immediately, forcing Sean’s wolf to move back. I raise my hands to strip my shirt off, but the animal immediately starts to howl. A few seconds later, Sean is on all fours in front of me, breaths sawing in and out of him.

I force my shirt down, glaring at him as he stands. “You bastard.” I stalk forward, shoving him in the chest. He falls over the coffee table, dick out and all, and lands on his ass.

He cringes. “Mia....”

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