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“Help yourself to anything and recover. You can pick up your shift at Dynasty’s later this week. Then you can get back on your feet and make some decisions about your future.” Saint bites his toast and waves as he walks out.
“That was weird and hurtful,” I murmur to myself. The seed of unease has been planted and is just growing stronger inside me.
I eat slowly and alone. But by the time I’m finished, I’m frantic. My food is sitting like a rock inside me, and I’m not sure it will stay there. I get chills flashing across my skin, leaving me feeling weak.
No! I’m wrong. There is no way this is happening. I clench my fist and stare at it. I’ve missed something. Maybe I upset them or…or it’s just a bad morning. If I can talk to them, we can sort this all out. I know we can, because…they wouldn’t have done that, gone through my heat with me. No, there’s no way. They feel the same way about me; they have to. We’re scent matches.
I get to my feet and have to grip the table when my legs wobble. I need to find them and see if I can figure out what’s going on. Clear this up, I can barely think, and inside me, there is a ball of panic that is growing.
I find Hunter in the bedroom, pulling on his jacket.
“Hi!” I say with a blush. The things we did run through my mind.
He barely looks at me.
A shivery feeling seizes my stomach, but I push it aside. They are just getting ready for work. It’s nothing.
“Hunter, please?” My voice comes out tiny.
He ignores me. Maybe he didn’t hear me, but I think, judging by the way he’s moving, that he did. I bite my lip hard enough that I taste blood, but it still takes a minute before my eyes clear enough to see.
A fiery ball of shame presses me down, and I can’t, I won’t beg him again. I just stand there staring at him as he gets ready, the knife of betrayal cutting deep. Doesn’t he know how much I love him? Why is he doing this?
Still, when Crow comes in and his expression doesn’t even change, I know that I’m not imagining things. I move towards him, but he doesn’t reach out. No fingers press against my shoulder, no hugs, no kisses.
I swallow a whine and twist my fingers hard so I don’t reach for him.
No one has touched me. Spoken in nice tones. No one is looking at me. It’s like I’m not even here. I don’t exist.
It’s ripping me apart.
I follow them to the front door and stand there, willing them to look at me. Willing them to speak, to apologise, to say something, anything. They get ready to leave without so much as a goodbye, and my horror turns to white hot rage.
“At least have the damn balls to tell me it was a mistake!” I shout, shocking them.
They do one of those three way, silent conversations. And what was once cute is now very, very offensive.
I snarl at them.
Saint is the one who advances towards me, but I back up, sensing the pain that’s going to come and trying to save myself. One last futile attempt at self-preservation. He takes the lead in this conversation while Crow and Hunter remain impassive.
“It wasn’t a mistake. We told you we would help you with your heat. We made you comfortable and safe, and we got you through it. Hunter explained beforehand that we needed to get you used to our touch, so you would feel safe, so no one got injured. It went perfectly. And now it’s done.”
My eyes widen as his words slash at me, bitterly burning the memories of my heat to acrid dust. They can’t be serious. This is a joke. It has to be because they wouldn’t go through a heat, they wouldn’t do that to me, there’s no way.
I think I might die from the pain his words are inflicting. I think I don’t know if I can survive this.
A cry escapes from me, but I muffle it with a hand over my mouth.
“But now, it’s over.” The words echo around the room when he says them a second time like he needs to drive the nail in deeper. This asshole!
“We’re scent matches,” I protest, a hoarse whisper of sound that ends on a sob.
“That doesn’t mean anything. We,” he indicates Crow and Hunter, “made a pact not to let anyone else in and no more bonds. You will find another pack.”
“WE ONLY GET ONE SCENT MATCH! IT’S A ONCE IN A LIFETIME!” I roar at him. My throat aches from the force of how loud I scream, but it doesn’t even make them flinch.
How can they be doing this? How can they hurt me and not feel anything? What is wrong with them?
