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?”

1/6

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?

Chapter 345

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

2/6

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

with Axel’s

time, looking up at him, searching

for the

and I think

after all.

from here if he

to give in to whatever thoughts are

inside his head.

still, holding me properly now, his touch tender. “Well, it was, just not in the way you’re thinking.”

Chapter 345

3/6

I say, daring to lift

embrace in a way I never imagined

mate,” he says, and a shadow enters his gaze, one that’s sad and 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

realize I’ve never considered things from

perspective.

sense why he

was trying to save both of us from the inevitable pain.

him in a quiet voice, and a hint of gratitude crosses his face at my

he continues. “I’ve made many

long lifetime, and I will no doubt

had a mate, any of them could easily threaten or use her

countless terrible ways.”

heart melts for him as I realize that all

me had been selfish, that

Chapter 345

4/6

want to be with

like I am.

was trying

rejecting me were the least selfish ones he could

up

understand,” I say, and I realize it hurts

position, and there’s nothing I can do to

him.

he can’t quite

do with the fact.

I nod emphatically.

to do is make your life harder,

doing these past

“I played my part

well.”

for a

new trust and depth of

between us.

be in

Chapter 345

5/6