Tears streamed down her face, but she stood her ground. “I’m not giving up on us, Lesley. I’ll do whatever it takes to fix this.”
He shook his head, his expression unreadable. “There’s nothing to fix. You’ve destroyed everything.”
He turned and walked away, leaving her standing alone, her heart breaking under the weight of his rejection.
That night, Lesley sat alone in his chambers, a bottle of whiskey untouched on the table. His thoughts were a chaotic mess, his emotions raw and unrelenting.
The mating bond was a cruel thing, tethering him to someone who had betrayed him so completely. He could feel it fraying, the threads pulling tighter with each moment he resisted.
Ava’s words echoed in his mind: “I’ll do whatever it takes to fix this.”
But could he let her? Could he forgive her?
