Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 92941 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 465(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92941 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 465(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
“It’s not annoying,” Reese argued. “It’s painful.”
“It wasn’t for her. I would’ve seen it.” Once I allowed myself to really think about those days I’d known Millie, so many things stood out. The way she’d kept her distance. The fact that she’d barely spoken when Zeke and I were around. She’d been frustrated that we were taking up time that she could’ve been spending with her husband before he shipped out. She hadn’t felt the pull to me at all. It would’ve been impossible to hide.
“Why?” Reese asked, turning to look at me. “Why wouldn’t she have felt it?”
“I don’t think I was supposed to meet her,” I said, the realization settling like a rock in my stomach. “She—I don’t think it was supposed to happen at all.”
“But that’s not how it works,” Reese said softly, watching me.
“I think I was supposed to meet you.”
She scoffed and looked away again as Rena stomped out onto the porch.
“I’ve given you enough time,” she announced, looking at Reese. “You want to come home with me?”
“No,” Reese replied, tipping her head back to look at her friend. “But thank you for coming.”
“Of course I came,” Rena snapped. “Just send an SOS if you need to escape.”
“I will.”
“Thanks for coming, Rena,” I said as she stomped down the porch.
“Eat shit and die, Vampire,” Rena called back, flipping me off over her shoulder.
“She’ll settle down,” Reese said as we watched her best friend climb in her car and peel out as she drove away. “Eventually.”
“I wasn’t sure what to do,” I said, watching the taillights disappear. “I thought you might need her.”
“I did.”
We sat quietly, but it only lasted for a few minutes before I found myself rising to my feet.
“It’s too cold out here.”
“You’re always so worried about the cold,” Reese grumbled as she stood up and followed me to the door.
“It’s freezing out here.”
“You’re not even wearing a coat.”
“I’m a Vampire.”
“Oh, Vampires don’t feel the cold?”
“We do,” I replied, holding the door for her. “But it doesn’t affect us the same.”
“I’m immortal, remember?” Reese said as she passed me.
“We don’t know if that’s true yet.”
“How will we know?” she asked, slowly moving toward the stairs.
“You’ll stop aging.”
Reese looked down at her chest. “Hear that, girls? You’re gonna stay nice and perky forever.”
I smiled as I followed her up the stairs. She moved like she was eighty years old, and her tone hadn’t changed, but the fire was back.
When we got back to our rooms, Reese headed straight to the bedroom. I followed more slowly and found her sitting on the edge of the bed.
“Okay?” I asked carefully.
“I’m not sure where we go from here,” she confessed, not looking at me. “I was so—I looked without leaping, you know? I thought things were different.”
“What did you think was different?” I asked, rounding the bed as my stomach sank.
“Stupid,” Reese muttered. “I thought you’d been waiting for me. I felt—I felt important.”
“You are important.”
“No, I’m the one you got stuck with,” she said with a shrug, meeting my eyes. “In all of the reincarnations”—she stumbled over the word—“you ended up with the one you didn’t even like.”
“That’s—No, that’s not true.”
“Let’s be real,” she said dryly. “We both know I wasn’t who you would’ve chosen.”
“You are.”
“Stop it.”
“You’re talking nonsense,” I argued. “Of course you’re who I would’ve chosen. You’re my mate.”
“In this century.”
“Why are you—You’re my mate,” I repeated. Didn’t she understand that? What it meant? She was the other half of me.
“You haven’t even kissed me,” she snapped, shooting to her feet. “So…don’t. Just… don’t.”
I gaped at her.
She hurried to the bathroom, slamming and locking the door behind her.
I hadn’t.
I hadn’t kissed her even once. In the beginning it had felt too intimate. I hadn’t wanted to feel the pull to her, and I’d still been fighting it even as we’d completed the bond. But after that?
Staggering over to the bed, I dropped onto it.
Fuck.
I’d still been fighting it. I’d still been holding myself back. Echoes of the past were still fucking me up eighty years later.
Because if Millie had so easily been able to ignore the mating bond, then so could Reese. If I didn’t let her get too close, then, when the inevitable happened, maybe I’d still survive it. Maybe.
My self-preservation had made Reese question the bond. It was a self-fulfilling prophecy.
A whimper made my head snap up. I stared at the door. The sound came again.
“Reese,” I called, knocking at the door. “Baby, open the door.”
The sound came again. Muffled.
“Reese, open the door,” I ordered, louder.
Nothing.
Reaching up, I slid my hand above the doorframe until I found the key.
When I opened the door, Reese was sitting on the floor, her back against the wall with her knees pulled up to her chest. Her head rested on her arms, and she didn’t look up as I crouched in front of her.