“All the things!” he growled, rising irritated. “Can’t you see? In the event that they knew it was us who killed him, they’d have moved him into a distinct location. Guaranteeing the warfare went on for longer. It was my job to assist convey him house! I did what I needed to do to maintain the cops and Rutt-Tayo off our path! We had been at warfare, rattling it!”

“I wasn’t,” I mentioned stubbornly.

“Nicely, I used to be. I did what I needed to do for my folks.” He shook his head in frustration. “I by no means anticipated to see you once more.”

“As a result of I might have been in jail,” I identified angrily. “So, you simply used me for intercourse to get your cowl story. Gosh, that makes me really feel so significantly better.”

“That wasn’t the one purpose,” he mentioned. “Not that they’ll make issues any higher.”

“What do you imply?”

“I slept with you since you had been smoking sizzling and … and since my dragon was insisting on it. Even then, it knew.”

“Knew what? That I’d make the proper patsy for you?”

“No,” he growled with extra hearth than he’d proven up to now. “That you just had been my mate. I believed that was clear by now. I ought to have listened to it then, however I didn’t. And I damage you due to it. I apologize for that, Lena, I actually do as a result of I didn’t prefer it. However I additionally wouldn’t undo it both. At the moment, I did what I needed to do. I want we’d by no means gone to warfare, that it had by no means been mandatory, however I had an obligation to my folks. That obligation trumped what, on the time, was a random human, regardless of how stunning and intriguing.”

“On the time?” I requested, attempting to not let his informal use of my shortened identify get to me. Nevertheless it sounded so good rolling off his tongue.

He nodded fiercely. “I might by no means do such a factor now. I might go to the ends of the earth to guard you and our little one. My obligation now could be to you and the child. Nothing may come between that.”

“I …” I shook my head. “I don’t know if I can settle for that, Damon. I spent two months in jail due to you. Have you learnt how terrible that was? Then, I used to be shipped right here. Due to you and what you probably did to me. My very own folks determined I used to be a traitor and that this was the simplest option to eliminate me. They didn’t need me. You didn’t need me. You simply used me. How do I do know this isn’t extra of the identical?”

“You don’t,” he mentioned with stoic bluntness. “As a result of the one factor to show it’s my phrase. And proper now, you don’t know when you can belief it.”

“Precisely,” I whispered.

His eyes clouded over, swirling seas of deep blue that also threatened to drag me in. How was it that in spite of everything I’d simply found, I wished to forgive him? To attempt to transfer previous what he’d finished.

“How can I make it as much as you?” he requested. “There have to be a way for me to point out you that I’m not utilizing you now. That I care.”

“That’s the issue,” I whispered, forcing myself to be robust. “I don’t assume there’s.”

Chapter Thirty-Three

Damon

One thing reached round my abdomen and squeezed arduous, slicing its ache deep into me because the heaviness of her tone sank house.

I used to be shedding her.

Issues had modified so shortly. From her shifting in to utter failure within the blink of a watch. I cursed myself for being silly sufficient to hold on to the ID badge and for not even pondering twice about hiding it higher. If I’d simply finished that, issues can be advantageous.

Besides I might nonetheless be mendacity to her.

It was arduous to persuade myself within the second, nonetheless, that having the reality on the market would truly make something higher. I’d been about to start out actually bonding with my mate. Now I wasn’t positive if I’d ever be capable of maintain her once more. Discovering a path to forgiveness didn’t look overly promising.

“Take me house,” Elanya mentioned into the void yawning vast between us.

“What?”

“Residence,” she whispered with the barest trace of a flutter to her phrases. “Take me house, Damon. To my family and friends. Let me go.”

I swayed backward, my dragon roaring in denial. Let her go? Preposterous. We’d simply discovered her. Now was the time to bond along with her, to put our scale on her pores and skin, to make issues official. Then nobody else would ever be capable of declare her. She can be mine. Letting her go was the worst factor to do proper then.

From a mating perspective. As an excellent particular person, nonetheless, it was the unsuitable transfer. I couldn’t ask that of Elanya, not proper then. And it was inconceivable to pressure the bond on her. She needed to need it, to simply accept it.

“Elanya …” I mentioned, stalling for time as I attempted to prepare my ideas and provide you with an excellent counterargument. One thing to persuade her to remain.

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