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

Axel’s assessment

I whisper this time, looking up at him,

for the

looks torn for a second and I think maybe he’s not going

after all.

to go from here if

to give in to whatever

inside his head.

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

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to me,” I say, daring to lift

his chest, enjoying how I’m in his embrace in a way I never imagined I would be.

“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

startled to realize I’ve never considered things from

perspective.

it makes total sense why he rejected me.

of us from the

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

continues.

and I will no

a mate, any of

countless

him as I realize that all this

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

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simply didn’t want to be with

like I am.

he was trying to

reasons for rejecting me were the least selfish

come up

it hurts that my mate

there’s nothing I can do to help

him.

whispers, as if he can’t quite believe it, or

what to do

I nod emphatically.

last thing I want to do is make your life

been doing these past weeks.”

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

well.”

me into a hug, and for a

and depth of

between us.

won’t be in my

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