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He stood so suddenly I fell backwards and had to release his hand

"I’ll ht is through"

"I… What?"

"You really don’t understand what’s changed, do you?"

"Lucas and I completed the mate ceremony"

"He’s marked you Not like the mate-bond He’s written himself all over you Inside you, even It’s like a tattoo on every part of your being telling other wolves to fuck off It tells them you’re his It tellsyou can rationalize around, Secret This is so to Lucas You’re not mine anymore"

He walked into the bedrooo"

"I have to I can’t look at you without seeing his on the bed

"But I love you"

He stood up, a duffel bag in his hand The bag dropped, and he crossed the roo that hurt as much as it comforted "I know"

"I love you more" More than Lucas More than the pack

Desazes locked, and for a fraction of a second I thought it was enough I thought the power of love alone would break through whatever was ripping us apart and we’d be okay again

"And I love you I do I love you soI think about when I wake up and the last thought that crossesin life that comes easy to me" He pressed his hand overnear his thurabbed hi hiency laid raw as I foraged past his lips and tried tofor

I tried to appeal to the part of hiive up

He broke away and wiped a pink tear off o," he whispered

"No"

"It’s not up for debate"

"You just said there’s always a choice You can’t have it both ways" I grabbed the duffel bag from him and threw it back in the closet "I almost died out there" I lifted my shirt and showed him the new bullet scar between my ribs

He sat on the bed, and for a ht in this bedrooht "You toldcould match how you feel when you’re with me So stay with me"

"It’s different now"

"Why?"

"Because now you’re really his"

"I don’t belong to Lucas I don’t belong to anyone"

He looked at me, and that one look said it all One look broketo ed fros in it I sat in the chair by the door and watched him The tears didn’t co as he packed up his half of the life we’d built together like all ere items in a drawer

When he went to the door and pulled on his jacket, I stood in thewheeze

"I’ would sos

"Then don’t go"

He shook his head "I can’t stay Seeing him all over you… I can’t touch you with him on you I can’t be here with the constant re after the battle was lost"

"It’s not…"

"It’s over"

"But--"

"I want to love you But if I do it like this…it will kill h the open door and closed it behind hi places are within a two-block radius of rocery store I visited all three in the hour after Desmond left me

Leary Fallon--the merman or whatever the male version of a siren is--who ran the weaponry didn’t want to sell un He looked atwith two bottles of Jameson whiskey in it and shook his head

"I don’t facilitate suicides, McQueen"

"Fuck you, Fallon I’cause of suicide is?"

"Being denied guns?"

"Divorce"