Her head shot up, panic filling her every feature. “I have to get home.”
I stood the second she did, but neither of us took any steps. She looked down at her clothes—my clothes—that covered her body. She tugged on the T-shirt and frantically searched around the room with darting eyes.
“Where are my clothes? Where are my things? Why am I wearing this?”
I rushed to her side, hesitant to touch her. “Your clothes were wet from your swim, so I put them in the dryer. They’re dry now. Your boots are on the front porch, and I have no idea where any of your other belongings are. You didn’t have anything else with you when I pulled you from the lake.” My words sounded cold and distant, detached, even to my own ears.
Bree refused to look at me. She continued scanning the room, looking at anything instead of meeting my gaze. “Where is my car? My keys? I need my phone. I need to call for a ride. I have to get home.”
“I told you, I don’t know where any of those things are. But I think you should sit down for a minute. Let me make you some coffee and we’ll talk.” I lightly held her forearm in an attempt to show her some support. We had so much to talk about, and I knew we wouldn’t get anywhere if she didn’t calm down.
But she ripped her arm away from me, as if I’d burned her, throwing daggers at me with her fierce glare. “No! I don’t need coffee…and I certainly don’t need to talk. I need to go home.” Her words were harsh, spoken through clenched teeth, filled with panic and worry.
I huffed out my defeat and took a step back. “Fine. I’ll take you home.”
“No. I just need my car. I can take myself home.”
“Bree…” I waited until I knew I had her attention. “I don’t think you’re in the right frame of mind right now to drive.”
“Fuck you, Axel. You don’t know shit about me and my frame of mind.” Her low, growling words ignited the fight within me, the same fight I’d pushed to the sidelines out of concern for her.
“I know you tried to kill yourself last night.”
Her eyes widened with shock, but then an incredulous laugh bubbled from her slack mouth. “I did what? I’m not sure what you think you saw, Axel, but I can guarantee you that I was not trying to kill myself. Suicidal? Not in the least.”
“Then explain why you jumped in the lake at one o’clock in the morning? You didn’t resurface until I jumped in after you, pulling you out. Had I not been there, they’d be pulling your dead body out of the depths of the water right about now.” Heated fury burned my skin as I fought back, angry over her callousness. Angry over the unfounded temper she directed toward me. Angry over our circumstances.
She shook her head, quickly turned her back to me as if she couldn’t stand the sight of me, and then slowly spun back around, appearing oddly resigned. Her gaze was softer, calmer, but I could still see the fire blazing behind her eyes. God, it was good to know that fire was still there after everything that we’d been through.
“Thank you for saving me, Axel. You’re extremely good at two things when it comes to me…saving me, and destroying me. Now that you’ve saved my life, I think it’s best that I leave you alone, before your other talent makes an entrance.”
I grabbed ahold of her shoulders, squaring her body with mine to prevent her from walking away. “I’m not even going to go there with you right now, because I have too much to say about that. Now tell me, why did you jump in the lake last night? If it wasn’t to kill yourself…what was it?”
“I was fucking wasted, Axel. I went to my sister’s bachelorette party, and after that, I don’t remember much. I don’t remember being at the lake, much less jumping in. I have no idea where you came into the picture. I have not a clue as to how I got here. Connecting the dots, I can assume you’re stalking me, brought my unconscious body here, and from what I’m wearing, I think it’s safe to say you stripped me naked. How was that, Axel?”
My grip on her shoulders tightened, causing her to wince slightly. “I wasn’t stalking you. I had no idea who you were until I pulled you out of the water.” My words came out cold, hard, and showed every ounce of anger that coursed through me. “And I had to remove your clothes because they were soaking wet…I didn’t want you to get sick.”
“You should’ve left me there, Axel. After all, you’re great at leaving me behind.” She held no fight in her words, only resolve. Only sadness and surrender.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I roared in her face.
She took a step back, wincing from my tone.
My grip loosened as I said, “We need to talk, Bree. I need to know—”
“No,” she firmly stated while shaking her head slowly. “We have nothing to talk about. I have to get home. They’ll be worried about me.”
“They?” I asked as she continued to pull away. My hand slipped from her shoulder to her forearm, and finally down to her hand. I held onto it, not ready to let her go completely. Even after all she’d put me through, I was never able to fully let go of her from my mind. But once my fingers tightened around hers, I felt something cold and glanced down. A plain, silver band adorned her ring finger, and I had to mentally check what hand it was on. I hadn’t noticed it before, probably because I’d been too focused on her breathing and hadn’t paid any attention to the rest of her.
My painful gaze met her cold stare, and that’s when my heart finally broke for the last time. Up until that moment, I’d harbored some kind of unfounded hope that one day we’d meet again. And when that day would come, we’d talk about everything, starting with the moment I’d walked out of the school, and essentially cut her out of my life. We’d catch up on the lost time, realize we belonged with each other, and then finish living out the dreams we made together in my back yard on prom night. But feeling her wedding band against my fingers, knowing it wasn’t mine, and not finding a speck of remorse in her eyes…that hope I’d carried with me dissipated. The last piece of my already broken heart disintegrated. And the strength I’d fought for weakened. No…not weakened. It gave up. Left me feeling like I’d been hit by an eighteen-wheeler, dying a slow, agonizing death.
I dropped her hand and her gaze, at a loss for what to do next. For six years, ever since the day I’d heard her crying my name from behind me as I exited the school for the last time, I’d wandered through life. Making one bad choice after another, just waiting for something to make sense. I needed a purpose, a reason why everything fell apart. I needed clarity. And last night, when I looked into her wolf eyes again, I thought I’d found it. I thought we’d been separated by time and distance to allow our ages to catch up to our hearts.
But that wasn’t the case.
She was taken.
She belonged to someone else.
My mind darkened with the reality that while I’d never been able to move on, she had. It solidified my previous worries that her feelings for me were nothing more than naïve, young love, while mine were real, hard, and unforgiving. I was at war with myself over this. On one hand, I wanted to be happy for her. I wanted to feel content with the knowledge that what had happened to us didn’t destroy her the way it had obliterated me. Even through all the anger I’d harbored against her for the decisions she’d made at the end, it still didn’t negate that I wanted her to be unaffected by our relationship. But even though I wanted to be happy for her, I couldn’t help the menacing anger that burned bright inside my chest. Aubrey Jacobs had ruined me. She ruined me for any other woman, for the chance at a healthy relationship, and worse, she’d ruined my chance to carry on with a normal life.
In the end, resentment won out.
“I’ll take you to your car…if you remember where you left it.” I stormed past her, not once raising my sight to hers, and grabbed my keys off the counter. I pulled her clothes from the dryer, balled them up, and shoved them at her. All while she stood there, not one word falling from her lips. I stalked to the front door, hearing her ragged breaths behind me.