11

GEORGIA

✿

The blood roared in my ears. My entire limbs felt a tingling sensation. My heart was beating fast in my chest as if I had run a mile. My thoughts stopped. And then, like the world was holding its breath, I knew. I just knew.

We stared at each other and I couldn't move, not an inch.

I just looked at him.

my mate My all. My family.

Beautiful. Sexy. my .

And he stared at me. With those green eyes that got brighter with every second we looked at each other. Those hard, masculine features. His short haircut. His broad shoulders. He must have removed his suit jacket because he was standing in just a plain white shirt that hugged his tight muscles. Rough hands that felt soft against my skin.

And then this scent. Pine, sandalwood and pure masculinity. He was everywhere, dominating me, filling me. I felt him in every cell of mine. I felt Beau and I felt our bond. That single strand pulsing wildly between us, tugging at us. Violent.

As if lightning had struck me, I ran towards him. I couldn't just stand there and look at him any longer. Everything in me called to go to him. I wanted to touch him, to snuggle up to him and feel his warmth. Wanted to feel those big hands on me and know that I belonged to him. finally .

The moment I broke my rigid state, Beau came to life as well, pushing himself off the pillar and was with me before I could walk more than a few yards. And then there he was. He caught me, pulled me into his arms and hugged me tightly. He buried his face in my hair, sucking in my scent deeply.

I wrapped my arms around his neck. I clung to him. "I knew it," I blurted out, trembling with happiness, narrowing my eyes as I snuggled closer to him, just as I'd imagined for the past four orbits of the sun. Everything was perfect. I've never been so happy in my life. The smile on my lips almost burst, it was so big. And it was real. so real

I felt the claws on my back and my waist, felt the fangs lightly brush the back of my neck and made me shiver in his arms.

"My Georgie." He rubbed his rough cheek against mine like a wolf. His hands wandered over my body. "My Georgie." Then he grabbed the back of my neck, his mouth close to my ear. Dominant. possessive. My body vibrated under his deep, rumbling growl. He looked at me so intensely that I got very hot. " My ."

My heart shattered. "Yes. Yes.” My hand went up the back of his neck, up through his hair. Pulled him even closer to me. "Yes. I am yours."

Then, as if a switch had been flipped in his head, his muscles tensed. Everything about him was tense. He shook his head and pain filled his green eyes from which his wolf was looking at me. "No."

I was amazed. I didn't understand the pain, didn't know what it was doing in his eyes. It was the best moment of our life. We had found each other. How could he feel pain?

But the torment increased and he looked at me as if he were in great agony. He grimaced in agony and said in a hoarse voice that sounded like a grater, "This is torture."

I heard him curse under his breath and my whole body froze as I understood the words.

"Shit." He rubbed his face. "Holy shit."

I leaned back to get a good look at him, but didn't let go of the grip of my arms around his neck as if I could stop him from leaving me. I never wanted to let go of him.

"Beau, what's the matter?" I whispered cautiously. It was like the ground beneath me was made of ice and any movement would collapse it.

He lifted his head, then gently stroked my cheek like he had done before. But this time he added words that broke my heart. “Georgie, this doesn't mean anything. It changes nothing between us.”

"What?" I asked, slightly incredulous. I misheard. I just had to.

He broke away from me. Put distance between us. "It will take a week or two, but by then the bond should have dissolved."

No. No, oh moon goddess, no, let it not be true. I clenched my hands into fists that had been in his hair seconds before. "We're mates, Beau."

“You know how things work. At the moment we are, but the bond is not solid. We just have to keep enough distance, then..."

Then it will vanish into thin air. And never arise again.

It was like everything around me was collapsing. The wind that blew through the archway, which was open at the side, suddenly felt ice-cold. I looked up at him. To my mate. To the one who chose the goddess herself for me. To the one who should be everything to me.

To the one who didn't want me.

My throat was tight and I croaked, "How can you say something like that?"

He took a step back, as if he couldn't put enough distance between us. “You will find someone else. And you will be happy.”

Anger mingled with my feelings. "What are you talking about? Beau?” I was with him in an instant, grabbing his hand and laying it on my heart. How could he not feel that? How could he even think such cruel words? “We are mates. We belong to each other.”

"Stop that Georgie."

"So you don't want the tape?" You don't want me? was the question I was too cowardly to ask.

'I've never wanted a mate. This has nothing to do with you.” He freed his hand from my grip. He sighed in frustration, then took my face between his hands. Almost gently, he pressed a kiss to my forehead. I felt his warm lips. Felt the slight pressure doing all sorts of things to me.

“I'm sorry you got me. Maybe when the mate ribbon wears off, you'll get a new one."

“You only have one mate! Besides, I don't want a new mate.” I looked up at him pleadingly. I grabbed his hands still holding my face. "Beau!"

He briefly rested his forehead on mine and squeezed his eyes shut. I heard the suppressed anger in his voice as he said, "I'm sorry, okay?" Then he pulled himself away from me and everything inside me like a pathetic house of cards.

"No, you can't just run and hide! Does not work like that!"

He turned to me, growling. "I told you to damn it stop!"

"But-"

"No!" he snapped, and this time he gave me a look I never thought I'd get. not me "Stay away from me, understood?"

My eyes burned. Everything in me burned - and it hurt terribly. I shook my head. "You don't mean it like that."

"Every single word." Then he turned and transformed, tearing his clothes, then ran away from me in wolf form.

I sobbed and slapped my hand over my mouth as I watched the brown wolf dash across the nocturnal training field and disappear behind the tree line.

A moment ago I thought I couldn't be happier. My life was perfect, everything was perfect. I could have hugged the whole world.

But now... Now I felt infinitely empty.

Empty and lonely.

Tears streamed down my cheeks and I wrapped my arms around my body. Tried to hold him together while everything inside me felt like it was falling apart. How could he push me back? How could he? We were soul mates. We were made to complement each other. to love each other .

He was my family after all.

It was the same numbing pain that had been in the cells years before. As my parents' lifeless bodies lay on the cold, damp lava floor - their faces contorted in pain. I had thought I would never feel him again. Convinced myself that everything would be fine once I found my mate. As soon as Beau actually saw me.

Today he had done it. And he dumped me like an old mutt.

Family, Georgina, is the most important thing in life. And you never give them up.

I was still staring at the adjacent pine forest as if it were suddenly coming back to me when I heard my mother's voice. I remembered how seriously she had looked at me then. My mother, who always had a smile on her face. And then I made a decision.

If Beau thought I was giving up on my mate just like that, I wasn't the only one who wasn't quite as smart. I had spent fourteen sun orbits in a crypt, had not seen a ray of sunshine on any of these days, had to lock my wolf deep inside me. My body endured agony that I still have nightmares about to this day. He thought I gave up? He really thought some brutal, ruthless words would bring me down?

I'd failed my family before, hadn't fought enough for them. That won't happen to me this time.

I will fight like I should have in the cells. Because I wasn't that scared little girl anymore, staring traumatized. Mate bands can only unravel if the couple distances themselves; physically as well as mentally.

I determinedly wiped my tears from my cheeks and gathered up my dress. Beau should brace himself.

Because I had decided to get my mate back.