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

with Axel’s assessment of

time, looking up at him, searching

for the truth.

looks torn for a second and I think

me after

here if he can’t

seems to give in

his head.

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

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me,” I say, daring to lift my hands and

embrace in a way I

can’t ever have a 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 would I go on living and upholding the peace between wolves and vampires if I went mad from

startled to realize I’ve never

perspective.

sense why he

trying to save both of

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

all,” he continues.

my long lifetime, and I will no

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

me in countless terrible ways.”

as I realize that all this time,

reject me had been selfish, that he was some kind of

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who simply didn’t want

like I am.

trying to

reasons for rejecting me were the

come up

I realize it hurts that my mate has

a terrible position, and there’s nothing

him.

do?” he whispers, as if he can’t quite

do with the fact.

I nod emphatically.

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

these past

Emily,” Axel replies. “I played my part in it

well.”

into a hug, and for a

and

between us.

in my life forever.

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