Page 5 of Eclipse Sector
My jaw clenched, my arms encircling my middle again.
I wasn’t surewhatI wanted.
The Alpha I desired… the Alpha I’d been convinced was meant to bemine…
Playing in the wrong league.
Unsavory qualities.
Misplaced confidence.
Childish games…
I winced as the words revolved through my thoughts, my shoulders caving in.What childish games?I thought numbly.I… I thought you were just being stubborn. That you didn’t want a mate—anymate—and just needed to see that it was possible to be mated while also serving as an Elite.
But that hadn’t been it at all.
Cillian just didn’t wantmeas a mate.
I’d been blinded by my wolf’s desires, seeing things that didn’t actually exist.
All the while, he’d been truly irritated with me.
Annoyingly persistent.
The ballroom around me blurred.
I need to go,I realized.I need to run.To chase away this… thisagony.
Swallowing, I wrapped myself up in darkness again and teleported to one of my favorite snowy fields at the base of a sleeping volcano.
Blood Sector—former-day Iceland—was full of landscapes like this, making it the perfect place for peaceful retreats.
I ripped off my dress and kicked off my shoes, never wishing to set eyes on the outfit again—an outfit I’d worn withhimin mind.
Then I fell to the ground and let my wolf take over.
She might not have understood Cillian’s words, but she understood my pain. Just as she understood he’d been the one to cause said pain.
A howl spilled from my snout the moment my shift completed, my animal’s torment rivaling my own.
Our chosen mate doesn’t want us.
Our hero… isn’t a hero.
Our Alpha no longer exists to us.
My paws pounded through the snow, the chill a welcome kiss to my senses.
This is what we need, I thought.Freedom. Fresh air. A new perspective.
Each bound and leap took us further into the past and pushed us into the present.
A present where we started over.
A present where we remembered our worth.
A present where we decided the Alpha wasn’t inourleague.
