Chapter 19: “The Night She Chose Herself”
905 Words
Something broke in her expression. "You knew. This whole time, you knew what they said about my father, and you never told me."
"I didn't want to hurt you," I gasped. "I wanted to verify it first, to find out the truth before.."
My father threw me across the cell. I hit the opposite wall and felt ribs shatter. Pain exploded through my chest, and I couldn't breathe.
"Enough talking." My father advanced on Thelma, who stood frozen against the wall. "Your father was a monster, girl. And monsters breed monsters. I should have killed you twenty-three years ago."
I tried to stand, but my legs wouldn't support me. Blood filled my mouth. "Thelma... run..."
She looked at me, and through the bond, I felt everything she was feeling. Love and betrayal twisted together so tightly she couldn't separate them. Trust and doubt warring in her heart. The desperate desire to believe in me fighting against every lesson she'd learned about trusting the wrong people.
"I can't do this again," she whispered. "I can't be the fool who trusts the wrong person one more time."
"You're not," I coughed, more blood spilling over my lips. "Thelma, please.."
My father lunged for her, but Thelma's wolf exploded out in a blaze of golden light. The power that had been dormant her whole life, suppressed by drugs and poison, finally broke free completely. The blast threw my father and all the guards backward like they weighed nothing.
When the light faded, Thelma stood in the center of the cell, power crackling around her like lightning. Her eyes glowed pure gold, and I could feel the Alpha aura radiating from her in waves. She was magnificent. Terrifying. Everything her father must have been.
"Nobody touches me again," she said, her voice echoing with power. "Nobody uses me. Nobody owns me."
She looked at me, and I saw my death in her eyes. Not literal death, but the death of whatever fragile trust we'd built between us.
"Thelma," I reached for her, dragging myself forward despite the agony in my chest. "Don't go. Please. We can figure this out together."
"Together?" Her laugh was broken. "Xavier, you were sent to seduce me and kill me. Your father murdered my parents. Your pack wants me dead. Even if you love me now, how can I ever know what's real? How can I trust anything when everyone I've ever known has lied to me?"
"Because I'm bleeding on the floor for you," I said desperately. "Because I just fought my own father to protect you. Because I would die before I let anyone hurt you."
"Maybe that's true." Tears streamed down her face. "Or maybe it's just good training. Maybe you're so deep in your cover that you believe your own lies."
She turned toward the shattered cell door where my father and the guards were starting to recover.
"Don't leave," I begged, tasting blood. "Thelma, please. You're not strong enough alone yet. You need time to learn your powers. If you run now, they'll hunt you down."
"Then let them try." She looked back at me one last time, and the love I felt through our bond was real, as real as the pain and betrayal. "I'm done being everyone's pawn, Xavier. Even yours. Especially yours."
"I love you," I whispered.
"I know." Fresh tears spilled over. "That's what makes this hurt so much."
Then she was gone, moving so fast she was just a blur of golden light. I felt her presence retreating through the mate bond, getting further and further away.
My father groaned and pushed himself up. "Stop her, you fools!"
But the guards were too slow. Thelma was already beyond the pack house, beyond the territory borders. I could feel her through our bond, running like her life depended on it.
Running from me.
"What have you done?" I asked my father, blood pooling beneath me. "She was safe here. We could have protected her."
"Protected her?" My father's laugh was bitter. "Boy, she just took out six guards and an Alpha without breaking a sweat. Your mate isn't the victim you thought she was. She's her father's daughter, and she's going to be just as dangerous as he was."
The mate bond stretched between us, growing thinner with distance but never breaking. Through it, I felt Thelma's anguish, her rage, her determination.
And underneath it all, the love she couldn't quite kill, no matter how much she wanted to.
"I'll find her," I whispered, darkness creeping in at the edges of my vision. "I'll make this right."
"You'll do no such thing." My father stood over me. "You're done, Xavier. You betrayed your pack for that girl. Now you'll face the consequences."
But I barely heard him. All my focus was on that thin thread of connection, following Thelma into the night. She'd left me bleeding and heartbroken, but the mate bond remained.
As long as that bond existed, there was hope. Even if she'd stopped believing in me, I would never stop fighting for her.
The last thing I saw before unconsciousness claimed me was the golden light of dawn breaking through the cell window, illuminating the blood on the floor where my mate had stood before choosing to walk away. She'd left me behind to save herself. And somehow, I had to find a way to prove I was worth coming back to..
- Writer
