Page 25 of Never Tamed
Torin huffs out another ragged groan and turns away from me, his profile unyielding. “There's no way for me to make this up to you.”
“I suppose you can break the bond. If you want.”
His horror is sharp and immediate. “I’m not going to break the bond,” he replies. “I’m done fighting it. But you’re angry with me. You have every right to be angry.”
I am? Yeah, I guess I am. There underneath the emotions is another layer,one that burns my insides. Fury at him, for putting us through this. For all this needless torment and suffering that might have been avoided if he’d let go of a bit of control.
“You were going to marry her,” I snap. “You were going to throw away your own happiness and chain yourself to a person like that.”
“Yes. I was.” There is no excuse in his tone.
“Even though she never cared about you. She never loved you. She was using you.”
He bobs his head along with every word despite the way they land like little hammer blows. He tamps down a wince but I’m staring at him closely enough to see it anyway. “All those things. Because I thought I was doing what was right for my pack, to protect them.”
He finally looks at me and I catch a glimpse of the old Torin on his face, the one who does not bend or break and expects everyone to play by his rules.
It’s strange to watch him try to erase it, to see the slight flickering of horror at his tone before he shoves it all aside, and breaks eye contact again.
Stranger yet to feel him in my head. I’m not used to Torin being hesitant. He’s always the one who knows exactly what he’s doing and has a thousand reasons to justify each behavior or action.
“I’ll understand if you never forgive me,” he says haltingly. “I’ve been horrible to you and I meant it. That’s not something you can come back from. I made you crawl to me.”
It’s my turn to nod. “You did.”
“I treated you like you were worth nothing.” He blows out a breath. “But you’re everything to me. You almost died because of me.”
He’s torn up about this. I need him to be because he’s right on all those counts. My fury isn’t going away anytime soon, either, no matter how much I care about him and no matter how badly I want him to touch me.
Torin keeps his distance like the space between us is absolutely necessary.
“I can live with it, as long as you live.” His knuckles go white. “I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure no one hurts you again.”
“Torin—”
“I’ll personally tear Catarina limb from limb for what she did,” he interrupts.
His fingers curl further until bone and tendon press against his skin. I hadn’t realized he’d reached out again. I’d been too focused on his eyes, on the play of light and guilt in those depths. His wolf is close to the surface like it’s eager for retribution because of what happened to its mate. My own wolf cries out for blood.
The air quality changes and a sharp gull cry breaks through the tense silence.
There are a thousand things for me to say and none of them are appropriate. The confusing swirl in my head doesn’t just belong to me, either. Part of it is Torin's confusion and his emotions. They’re deep, a whirlpool, pulling me down into the depths where I know I’ll never surface again. I’ll drown in his emotions with him.
I sigh and lean back on my elbows as the sky lightens from watery grey to peach. I force myself to stay still at the first brush of Torin’s hand against my pinky finger.
He reaches out, and I let him, the two of us watching the sunrise together, and I hope it won’t be our last.
Chapter 7
Mathis
The crunch of gravel under heavy boots guts the silence. My head snaps up when shouting follows, then the shriek of engines coughing to life.
The sharp scent of gasoline streaks the air, stinging the inside of my nose.
The port is up and running for the day and the dock workers have arrived.
I tense, every muscle wound tight. The container yard is waking up outside our temporary metal shelter, and the fragile hush we’ve clung to all night shatters.
