Page 60 of The Alpha’s Heir

This was the part that sucked.

At least the worst of the moonsickness would be over by now, though I still felt a bit off, like something different was happening inside of me. There hadn’t been a formal rejection, but he’d made his stance clear. My one consolation was that he wouldn’t hurt when I was gone, if he could bear the distance of the mate bond now.

Like I said, this wasn’t a romance novel.

But I couldn’t bring myself to leave without trying to tell him the truth one last time. It was the least I could do before saying goodbye.

“Roman.” I turned to look at him, steadying myself for the indifference that was sure to come. “Justus isn’t my mate.”

He frowned. I realized I was confusing him.

“Wolves mate for life. They don’t do human marriage. And this union might be for the gods, but my heart was never his.” My wolf nudged me to go on and I took a deep breath. “You’re my—”

“There you two are.” Justus slammed open the door to the kitchen. “Well, don’t just stand there. If we’re all doing this, let’s go.”

“We’re all…” I realized what Justus was saying, and my gaze went to Roman’s face.

“Let’s head out.” His jaw ticked. A slight break in his stoic mask. It hurt worse than anything else he’d thrown at me thus far.

My mate was coming with us to my home, it seemed, and he was pissed about it.

21

Roman

I shouldn’t have been surprised to see the way Katrina had taken to Meg, or to watch as the councilwoman bent to her wishes when Helen felt out of options. Meg had a calming sort of aura that centered the eye of a storm.

This pathetic crush of mine had to end.

It was getting too dangerous to be pining after the woman, especially now that I’d been assigned the most idiotic mission of my life. I might’ve been able to get Meg out of my system if I’d been allowed to rejoin the ranks and work alongside my men again, but there was no time to assign anyone else to this half-cocked and dangerous plan.

I could already see the headlines the city of Ethica would be waking up to tomorrow:

Councilwoman’s son runs off to the wild, chasing his new mutant bride.

And not a word of it was true.

Leave it to Helen to pull strings as fast as she did. An unmarked off-road solar-powered Jeep stocked with supplies pulled up into the driveway in less than an hour. Justus wouldn’t be chasing anyone. He was being dragged kicking and screaming into this plan along with us.

And Meg had said…

It didn’t matter what she’d said.

I had a job to focus on now.

I cringed when I saw who was behind the wheel of the Jeep.

“I’ve really got to stop driving your ass around, Lieutenant.” Staff Sgt. Marcus grinned half-heartedly.

I wanted to punch the colonel in his face for putting Marcus on this mission too. I’d known I wouldn’t be assigned alone—Justus was too precious to take a risk like that—but Marcus had a family that would miss him.

“We don’t know how long we’ll be gone,” I hurriedly whispered. “Is Daisy going to be all right?”

“She’s with her sister in the Fringes.” Marcus tapped the radio set up on the vehicle. “I’ve already got comms worked out.”

I nodded, knowing there wasn’t much else I could do without breaking the rules. Orders were orders.

Even when they sucked.