Total pages in book: 173
Estimated words: 168701 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 844(@200wpm)___ 675(@250wpm)___ 562(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 168701 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 844(@200wpm)___ 675(@250wpm)___ 562(@300wpm)
I’ve had a couple important occasions requiring me to step into the area and have been careful with masking my scent as well as traveling with a hat and glasses, I’d managed to avoid him up until then and still don’t know how he caught my scent. But I guess it had to happen.
Is it better that he’s had time to digest things rather than catching him off-guard? I don’t know, won’t ever get to know. This is how it is. And the day the coven helped with Amelia and Mason’s problem; I knew my time had run out. Tyson Savage wanted to drag me here to answer for my crimes. His mate Ivy talked him out of it, believing me when I swore I was heading this way.
And now… here I am.
Of course I knew things would be amped today. Vivi saw that things were crazed, knew major events were underway with the first two couples as well as that a third couple was about to come together. But she wasn’t sure if it’d be me and Riley. Suspected there would be a change in mating order and that if that happened, it could throw things off kilter.
I knew, we all knew, that I couldn’t leave this any longer. A foreboding bell tolled inside me letting me know it was time.
I needed to face this. Begin the mission of fixing things. I’ve always known it’d be difficult. I knew it would hurt. As the days have gone by I’ve become more and more sure I’ll lose something I never got to have.
But I doubt anything could have prepared me for the loathing that’s coming at me from the man I love. The man I’ve wanted to connect with, with an unrelenting ache since just days after I turned eighteen. The loathing isn’t just coming from my remorse. His loathing is weaving its way through me, showing me that we truly do have a connection with depth to it that I don’t yet comprehend. I don’t understand this bond we would’ve shared, but it hurts to know I’ve destroyed what could’ve been. I had to wait until my coven knew it was time. They told me it’d be about seven years. And we’re less than two weeks away from that seven-year mark.
I’ve wanted him for ten years but have been punished for nearly seven. Because of my crime of using witchcraft to make him mine. The way I went about it, too. The kick in the gut being he would’ve been mine had I waited on fate. It’s felt like one long punishment so far, feeling how I feel and knowing that he’s likely been mourning me all this time.
But maybe now is when the real punishment begins. Seeing the results of my fuck-up. Feeling the consequences.
I don’t even know where to begin with him. I haven’t even allowed myself to play out scenarios in my mind of what this might be like. Wouldn’t dare to hope it’d be okay somehow. I’ve done things to try to atone, to build goodwill. To give way more than I take. But the bottom line is that I’m now powerless to do anything but face what I did.
They told me that when this time came, I would come here and tell him the truth. That using magic would be forbidden while I’m in the village of Arcana Falls. I have to wait until he makes his decision before I attempt magic.
So, here I am. I’ll do my best to make peace with the man I love, the man who I’ve known for seven years would think of me as his greatest enemy when he found out the truth.
He continues glaring at me as I do my best to not wither into a heap of emotion. My body trembles and I know my eyes must be oozing with my feelings.
His fists clench and unclench. When he growls low, with warning, like I’ve done something, like he’s reading my thoughts, his eyes coast over my body again as my underwear become saturated. It’s as if that growl called it forth. And this throws me for a loop, and I press my knees together.
Riley’s nostrils flare and suddenly, he lunges, caging me on the bench seat. It’s not big enough for this, but that means nothing, because I’m on my back and he’s on me, my wrists painfully pinned over my head.
Another rumbling growl rolls up from deep within him, this one angrier. His eyes flame with fury. His exceptionally strong sense of smell coupled with this reaction shows me he knows what’s just happened in my underwear.
His chest heaves up and down as his eyes bore into mine. His jaw muscles clench and unclench before he buries his nose in my throat. I melt as he inhales me deeply. I’m about to burst into flames of desire as his scent fills my senses. He pulls back and his eyes move up to the roof. He’s looking at the pop-top bed up there.