Page 74 of Her Big Bad Wolf
I was struggling to understand where he was coming from, but it was clear he wasn’t about to explain himself either, at least not to me.
“Mary,” I yelled out when I walked in. “Sorry I’m late. I overslept if you can believe it.” Which she probably didn’t because it was a bold-faced lie.
“We’re back here setting up,” she replied.
“We’re?” I said to myself.
As I walked back to the classrooms, there they were. Tears pricked my eyes as Cam ran to me. I scooped him up and hugged him tight.
“You forgot to pick us up today.”
Guilt was a real bitch.
I may have been angry at Isaac, but there was no reason for me to take that out on the boys.
Maybe if I talked to Kyle again and made some modifications at home, he’d let me take custody of them. I wasn’t sure how the tiny house I chose to live in would work for the four of us, but I knew I had to give it a try.
“I. . . got us here,” Noah said. He cut his eyes back at Mary suspiciously, but I knew exactly what he meant. Isaac had brought them here.
My heart ached for my mate, but I also knew I had to protect it, especially from him.
This was exactly the kind of shit I told him wouldn’t work for me. He was putting the boys in an unnecessarily awkward situation.
I set Cam down and rubbed my temples. The day hadn’t even really begun yet and I was already battling a stress headache.
Mary gave the boys tasks to do and then pulled me aside.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Just a bad night’s sleep.” It wasn’t entirely a lie. I had slept like crap last night.
I should be able to talk to the people close to me about our fight. I should be able to seek the advice of my girlfriends, notthat I was extremely close to any of them, but I should still have the option if I wanted it.
Already I was distracted. I knew I had a very long day ahead of me.
Fortunately, it at least flew by quickly. Before I knew it, I was rushing Mason and Noah out the door and receiving kids for the day. Then, it felt like I blinked and it was lunchtime already.
Mary kept watching me closely. I knew I was worrying her, but it wasn’t like I could explain anything to her.
“I’m just having a rough time because I’m going through mating right now and he’s an asshole, but you can’t meet him because he doesn’t technically exist.”
I groaned softly. She’d likely have me signed up for a little chat with Lachlan over on Westin Force Delta team. And he would probably recommend they have me committed by the time our first therapy session was through.
Instead of eating with the kids, I chose to eat by myself and just walk through the motions of the day.
And when it came time to go home at last, I got in the car and automatically started driving out to the farm even though Kyle had personally picked the boys up.
I had been shocked and even more hurt when he’d arrived for Cameron.
There was no need for me to drive over there tonight. Isaac had drawn his line in the sand and I wasn’t willing to cross it. That meant there was nothing left for us.
The tears I’d been holding back all day spilled over as I turned the car around and drove home to an empty house.
I didn’t eat and I barely slept.
The bond was still strong between us and I could feel it trying to pull me back to him. I couldn’t do that because I wasn’t willing to live with his stipulations. But I also didn’t know how tobreak this bond. Every time I even thought about it, pain seared through me.
The next day there was no change.
