-Ember-
I wake to strong arms wrapping around me, lifting me from the cold bathroom floor. I don't know when I fell asleep or for how long. My eyelids are heavy and swollen from crying. Through my sleepy haze, I catch Adrian's scent—cedar, rain, and something darker, wilder.
"He found us," Ivy whispers, her voice uncharacteristically small. "He's actually here."
I want to fight against him, to demand he put me down, but I'm both physically and emotionally exhausted. My body feels like it's made of lead, and my heart weighs even more.
"I'm so sorry, little wolf," Adrian whispers, emotion thick in his voice. "Everything is okay. We are okay."
There's pain in his voice that confuses me. What right does he have to sound like he was the one wronged? He's the one who betrayed me. I'm the one whose heart is shattered into a million pieces on the bathroom floor.
"Don't fall for it," Ivy warns, but even she sounds uncertain. "No matter how good he smells or how warm his arms feel."
Adrian carries me to our room and gently places me on the bed, tucking me in before climbing in beside me and pulling me against him. He holds me close like I'm going to vanish at any moment. His breathing is ragged, like he's struggling with something. Wanting to say something. Barely containing some powerful emotion.
He keeps kissing my head and saying sorry over and over again.
"How could you?" The words emerge ragged and painful from my raw throat.
Adrian stiffens, his breath hitches, and his arms tighten even more around me.
"Little wolf, no," he says, voice thick with emotion. "I swear it isn't what you think. I would never do that to you."
"I smelled her," I whisper, my voice cracking like thin ice. "In your office. Her arousal was everywhere. All over your desk, Adrian. Please don't lie to me. I can't take any more lies."
Adrian shifts, pulling away just enough to look down at me, his eyes pleading. In the dim light, they shine with an intensity that makes my heart stutter despite everything.
"Jasmine was there," he admits, "but nothing happened. I swear to you on my life."
"I don't believe you." The words hurt to say almost as much as they clearly hurt him to hear.
"Get some rest and we'll talk about this later," he says softly, brushing hair from my face. "It hurts me to see you like this."
"I hate you," I whisper, the words barely audible.
"No, we don't," Ivy counters traitorously. "That's the problem."
Adrian kisses the top of my head and tightens his arms around me. "No, you don't, little wolf. I promise it's not what you think."
Between the crying and emotional exhaustion, it doesn't take long for me to fall into a restless sleep. When I wake again, night has fallen, and I'm alone in the bed.
"Something's wrong," Ivy whispers, immediately on alert. "Where is he?"
I sit up, looking around the darkness of the room. A figure sits in a chair in the corner, completely covered by shadow. The figure is holding a glass of dark liquid in one hand, the amber contents catching what little light filters through the window.
I gasp, startled, before registering Adrian's scent.
"Goddess, Adrian. You scared me." I press a hand to my racing heart.
He doesn't say anything. Just continues to stare at me and finishes off his drink in one long swallow.
"I don't like this," Ivy murmurs. "Something's different. He seems... cold."
"What are you doing?" I ask, my heart rate spiking.
"We need to talk, Ember." His voice is hard, sharp as broken glass.
Ember. Not little wolf.
The pounding of my heart drowns out all other sounds. I try to swallow the lump forming in my throat, but it refuses to budge. This is it. This is where he rejects me. Where he tells me this was all a mistake. I feel tears stinging behind my eyes, threatening to fall.
"Don't you dare cry," Ivy hisses, but I can feel her fear matching my own. "Don't give him the satisfaction."
"What do we need to talk about?" My voice comes out embarrassingly shaky.
Adrian sets his glass on the table beside him with a decisive click and stands, starting to slowly walk toward me. The predatory grace in his movements sends a shiver down my spine.
"I understand that your ex-mate really fucked with your head," he says, exhaling heavily. "That you come with a lot of insecurities."
"Wow, how generous of him to acknowledge our trauma while he's breaking up with us," Ivy snarls, but the quiver in her voice betrays her.
I don't say anything. I'm focusing everything I have on not breaking down. This is it. He, too, has decided I'm too broken to love. That I'm too damaged and weak. I just watch him slowly walk to the bed, each step deliberate, measured.
"Do you want to leave?" Adrian asks, sitting at the edge of the bed. My breath hitches, and he closes his eyes like he's in pain. "Do you want to leave me?"
"What do you mean?" I furrow my brow, genuinely confused.
"You obviously aren't happy here," he says, opening his eyes and staring at me. His face is lit by moonlight, his expression hard, closed off. "You haven't even been here twenty-four hours, and I'm the reason you've cried twice now."
I look down at my hands as I fidget with the blanket, unable to meet his gaze.
"He's turning this around on us," Ivy realizes with growing indignation. "Making US the problem when HE'S the one with another woman's scent all over his office!"
"Look at me, Ember." His voice raises slightly, commanding.
My eyes shoot up reflexively, and I hate the look he's giving me—cold, distant, so unlike the warm, passionate man who held me this morning.
"You're having issues trusting me," he continues, each word precise and cutting. "You walk into a situation and jump to conclusions without talking to me first. How is that fair to me? You don't give me a chance to explain before you immediately think the worst of me."
"I'm sorry," I whisper, hating how small I sound.
"Don't apologize!" Ivy protests vehemently. "We didn't do anything wrong! He's the one who—"
"Do you want to go back to Silver Moon?" Adrian interrupts Ivy's argument.
"What?" Panic floods my system. "Are you kicking me out?"
Adrian ignores my questions, his voice harder with a dark edge to it. "Do you want to go back to Silver Moon?"
"He IS kicking us out," Ivy whimpers. "Just like that. Less than a day here and he's already done with us."
"Why are you asking that?" A tear slips down my cheek, and I quickly wipe it away, hating my weakness.
"Answer the fucking question, Ember." His anger surfaces now, raw and biting.
"NO!" I cry out, the word ripping from my throat before I can stop it.
Adrian lets out a breath—in irritation? In relief? I can't tell. "Then what do you want?" He pauses, his jaw working. "Do you want me to set you up somewhere else?"
"Set us up somewhere else?" Ivy repeats incredulously. "Like we're some mistress he needs to keep quietly on the side?"
"Do you not want me anymore?" The question escapes before I can stop it, vulnerability bleeding through every syllable.
"This isn't about what I want." His jaw clenches, the muscle ticking rhythmically.
"I-I-I'm sorry," I stammer, letting the tears flow freely now, hiccuping between words.
"Stop apologizing!" Ivy demands.
"Tell me what you want," Adrian says, looking away like he can't bear to see he's hurting me. "I will do anything you want."
I just stare at him, my heart shattering into even smaller pieces. Yeah, I believe he cheated on me, but I didn't think he would throw me out so quickly. Why did he take me from Silver Moon if he was going to abandon me in less than twenty-four hours?
My thoughts are spiraling. I feel suffocated, like the walls are closing in and all the air is being sucked from the room. I need to get out. I need a moment away from him. I bolt up and start running toward the bathroom, desperate for escape.
I barely make it a few steps before Adrian's arms grab me, yanking me against his hard chest with enough force to knock the breath from my lungs.
"You can't keep running, little wolf," he says, refusing to let go as I fight to get free.
I pause at the nickname. He used it. That's got to mean something, right?
"Or it's just another manipulation," Ivy cautions, though uncertainty colors her thoughts.
"Please let me go," I plead, my voice small.
"Not until we talk." His voice is firm but lacks the coldness from before.
"If you don't want me, then what is there to talk about?" I ask, defeated.
"I never said I didn't want you," Adrian counters. "But you seem to keep thinking the worst of me. What am I supposed to do with that?"
"Oh, now he's the victim?" Ivy scoffs, her anger returning full force. "I don't think so!"
Her indignation fuels me, and I gather some of her strength with my own, breaking free of his hold. I whirl around to face him, pointing a finger at his chest.
"I'm not the one who cheated!" I snap, voice rising. "I'm not the one whose office smelled like another woman's arousal!"
I'm fired up now, the hurt transforming into righteous anger that burns through my veins like wildfire.
"I'm sick of being played the fool," I continue, the words pouring out like molten lava. "If I'm not enough, then just let me go. Let me be free. Don't pretend to care only to discard me like every other man in my life!"
"TELL HIM, EM!" Ivy cheers, glorying in our sudden backbone. "Make him hear us!"
"Did you feel any betrayal pains?" Adrian asks, visibly keeping his temper under control. "Did you feel me cheat on you?" His lip curls into a sneer. "Do you see any burns or blisters on me to indicate that I cheated on you?"
I pause, reality crashing through my rage. No, I didn't feel any pains. I look him over carefully and see no sign of burns or blisters. But what does that even mean?
"What are you talking about?" I ask, giving him a confused look. "What burns?"
"We are true mates, Ember," Adrian explains, his voice tight. "When someone that isn't your mate touches you with intimate intent... you burn and blister."
I give him a wary look, and then notice there is indeed a blister on his neck, angry red against his tanned skin. I clench my jaw. "There's a mark on your neck."
"So he DID cheat!" Ivy cries triumphantly, but her certainty wavers.
"Yeah, from Jasmine when she threw herself at me after I repeatedly rejected her advances," Adrian says, crossing his arms over his chest defensively.
"So it was her arousal I smelled in your office." My voice comes out in a sneer, though doubt is beginning to creep in.
"But if that were true..." Ivy starts, then trails off, confused.
"Yes," Adrian confirms, his lips thinning in anger. "She came in uninvited, sat on my desk, tried to use sex to lure me in. I called Asher and had her removed."
"Really?" I challenge, not ready to surrender my anger just yet. "So where were you when I went to your office? You were with her, weren't you?"
"That's enough, Ember," Adrian snaps, stepping closer until I have to tilt my head back to maintain eye contact. "I didn't fuck her. The only pussy I want to fuck is yours. The only woman who gets me so fucking hard I can't stand it is you. No one else."
"Really?" I cross my arms over my chest, trying to ignore the heat his words send spiraling through me. "Then where did you disappear to?"
"I went for a run. To clear my head," Adrian admits. "If I hadn't, I would have marched down to the cells and killed her."
"The cells?" I repeat, caught off guard.
"Yes, the cells," he confirms. "She threatened to kill you when I refused to be with her. So she gets to spend a week in the cells."
"She wants to kill me?" The revelation startles a gasp from me.
"Damn, these Dark Pine bitches don't play around," Ivy mutters.
"She also claimed she was pregnant," Adrian scoffs. "Desperate people do desperate things."
"So I'm just too much trouble for you?" I ask, my voice small again. "You're done with me?"
"No," Adrian says firmly. "I just don't want you to spend every day upset over something. I don't want you to be anxious and wonder if I'm being unfaithful. I want you to be happy. And if you can't find that with me, then I'm willing to let you go."
The sincerity in his voice, the pain in his eyes—it's too much. My legs give out, and I crumble to the floor, the fight leaving me all at once.
"Maybe... maybe we've been too quick to judge," Ivy admits reluctantly. "Maybe we're letting Tanner win by sabotaging the one good thing we've found."
I need to get over everything Tanner did to me. I'm sabotaging what Adrian and I could have together by holding onto these insecurities. Adrian hasn't actually done anything to warrant my distrust.
"I'm sorry," I whisper, looking up at him through tear-spiked lashes. "I'm so sorry, Adrian. I just... when I smelled her in your office, all I could think was 'not again.' I couldn't go through that again."
Adrian's expression softens, and he kneels before me, taking my hands in his. "You don't have to go through that ever again, little wolf. Not with me. I would chew off my own arm before I would betray you."
"I need to trust you," I say, squeezing his hands. "I want to trust you. I'm just... I'm scared."
"I know," he says softly, pulling me into his arms. "And I'll spend every day proving myself to you until you're not scared anymore. Until those voices in your head that tell you you're not enough are silenced for good."
I bury my face in his neck, breathing in his scent—his real scent, untainted by another woman. Just cedar and rain and Adrian.