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 assessment of me.

why?” I whisper this time, looking up at him, searching

the truth.

and I think maybe he’s

me after all.

know where to go from here if he

give in

inside his

he says gently, pulling me closer still, holding me properly now, his touch tender. “Well, it was, just not

Chapter 345

3/6

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

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

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

startled to realize I’ve never considered

perspective.

sense why

both of us

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

all,” he continues. “I’ve made

lifetime, and I will no

a mate, any of them could

countless terrible ways.”

I realize

had been selfish, that he was some kind of

Chapter 345

4/6

want to

like I am.

was trying to

reasons for rejecting me were the least selfish ones

up

I realize it hurts that my mate has

a terrible position, and there’s nothing

him.

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

to do with

I nod emphatically.

is make

been doing these past

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

well.”

and for a moment, we

new trust and

between us.

won’t be in my life forever.

Chapter 345

5/6