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“Hey, man,” Rowan said when he saw me. He frowned when he saw my face. “What’s wrong?”
“Did you bring them here?” I demanded.
“Who?” Rowan asked.
“Don’t play dumb with me,” I growled, ignoring Clea completely and getting right up in Rowan’s face. We’d been friends for a fuck-long time, but lately, he’d been a total ass. And he was the only one who knew about Lorraine.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Rowan asked, scowling. “You’re being a complete jackass. I’m busy, man.”
I turned to Clea, trying my best to stay calm. “Will you excuse us? It won’t be long.”
“I’ll be at the lake,” Clea said to Rowan, ignoring me as I’d ignored her. Whatever.
She left, and Rowan and I were alone.
“You can have some manners, asshole,” Rowan said. “You didn’t even say hi to her, and I’ve been nice to Lorraine every time you were so eager to get rid of me. What’s your deal?”
“Lorraine was taken this morning,” I growled. “Did you tell them where to find her?”
Rowan’s face changed from shock to incredulity to anger.
“You think I would do something like that!?” he demanded. “Fuck, Ash, how long have we been friends?”
I shook my head. “No one knew where she was except you.”
“Don’t kid yourself, Ash,” Rowan said, taking a step back so that I wasn’t right up in his grill. “Everyone around here knew about her. We all saw what happened that night when you grabbed her and put her in your cabin. Anyone could have snitched, and your first reaction is that it was me. Fine fucking friend you are.”
I shook my head and pinched the bridge of my nose between my thumb and forefinger. A headache throbbed dully between my temples.
“She can’t leave the vale.”
“Why the fuck not? I would have gotten rid of her ages ago for all the hell she’s causing you.” He held his hands up in defense. “Which doesn’t mean I actually told someone. I’m just saying.”
“I slept with her. We’re bound.”
“How?” Rowan asked with a frown before it dawned on him. “Oh. All Hallows’ Eve. The magic in the vale… she belongs to you until it’s all over.”
I nodded. Rowan was a lot of things, but dumb wasn’t one of them. He wasn’t disloyal, either. I knew I’d been an ass to suggest he’d been the one to hand her over. I just didn’t know what to think.
“I have to get her back,” I said. “They took her out of the vale, so she’ll be fading fast. If I don’t get her back, she’ll die.”
Rowan shook his head. “You were an idiot getting involved in all of this. You never learn, do you?”
“This isn’t the same as before. Ava had nothing to do with All Hallows’ Eve and bonds and all the shit that comes with it.”
“No, but she might as well have for all the complications she brought into your life. When are you going to avoid the humans and play in your own playpen? Seriously, we have enough women for you to choose from without anyone’s life being in danger because of it.”
I sighed. He wasn’t wrong. It just hadn’t worked that way for me, and looking back now was pointless. The facts were that Lorraine had ended up in the vale, I’d saved her life, I’d fucked her and bound her to me so that she couldn’t leave, and now she’d been taken. Outside of those facts, nothing mattered.
“I have to leave the vale to find her,” I said.
Rowan shook his head. “Is it really worth it? What if she dies? Without you getting involved, it would have happened anyway.”
I narrowed my eyes at my friend. “Are you even listening to yourself? What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“Look, it’s horrible, and I get it. The human world is a twisted place. There’s a reason we don’t get involved. They kill each other and hurt each other all the time. If we had to get emotionally attached to every single one of them, we wouldn’t survive the hell their antics would put us through. Just let nature take its course and let it go, Ash. It will be better for you.”
I shook my head and turned my back on Rowan. He didn’t get it. Lorraine wasn’t just any woman, and she wouldn’t have been bound to me if I’d been able to keep my cock in my pants, but she was in danger now because of me. Not only because the guys had found her and fuck knew what they were going to do to her, but because thanks to her bond with me, no matter if they planned on letting her live, she would die.
