Bad Love an Alpha’s Regret by Elise Sinclair

Chapter 345

I can’t bring myself to name what I’m feeling.

If I do, it’s putting too much power behind the emotion.

“Axel, why did you break the bond?”

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I didn’t mean to blurt that out, but once the words are out there, I

watch him flinch.

But he keeps walking.

Axel?” I try again.

He doesn’t answer right away, and I swallow down the lump in

my throat. But I don’t turn back. I follow him into the annex. To the

far end, pushing into the bathroom after him and not caring if he

wants his privacy or not.

He washes himself in the sink. The blood sluicing off his arms and

chest.

I wait as he cleanses away the remnants of the fighting. I want to

help him. To take the towel from his hand and care for him myself,

but I know it’s not what he wants right now.

“Why, Axel?” I repeat. “Is it because of what happened to me?

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Because you knew I would be some broken, fragile mess?”

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He hurls the last of the rags aside and steps forward. He catches. my upper arms, his expression fierce.

“I don’t think that about you at all, Emily,” he says in an intense tone. “I think you’re strong and resilient. I think you’re amazing. Instead of being broken by what you went through, you let it make

you stronger. Not many people can claim that.”

I let a wan smile tug at my lips.

Not many people have been through what I went through, and I

trouble agreeing with Axel’s assessment

I whisper this time, looking up at

the

a second and I think maybe

me after all.

here if he can’t be truthful with

seems to give in to whatever

inside his

about you at all, Emily,” he says gently, pulling me closer still, holding me properly now, his touch tender. “Well, it was, just not in the way you’re thinking.”

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me,” I say, daring to lift

in a way I never imagined I would be.

haunted. “I’m centuries old, and in all the time, the Moon Goddess never once granted me a mate. I understood why. I live a dangerous existence. And I’m immortal. What good would it do to have a mate for a single, mortal lifetime, only to lose. her and then maybe lose myself in the process. How would I go on living and upholding the peace between wolves and vampires if I went mad from grief

startled to realize I’ve never considered things from

perspective.

sense why he rejected

both of

sounds very lonely,” I tell him in a quiet voice, and a hint of gratitude crosses his face

he continues. “I’ve

no doubt make many more

a mate, any of

in countless terrible ways.”

heart melts for him as I realize that

been selfish, that he was some

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person who simply didn’t want to be with damaged goods

like I am.

he was trying

were the

up with.

it hurts that

such a terrible position, and there’s nothing

him.

if he can’t quite believe it, or

to do

I nod emphatically.

last thing I want to do is make your life harder, and that’s all

these

fault, Emily,” Axel replies. “I played

well.”

for a moment, we stand there holding

new trust and

between us.

won’t be in

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