By six A.M. the next morning, the other side of my bed was cold. I felt a sense of loneliness at realizing Matt had left. This meant I was finally alone to deal with the feelings I had distracted myself from yesterday. The pang in my chest was ever-present, a new nuisance in my life. Tandan's face plagued me while I dressed for work in a dark green sleeveless dress that flared out at my waist, accentuating my curves.
Part of me wanted him to show up for work so I could prance around, make him feel bad for leaving me. The other part was dreading the thought of seeing him. My heart already seemed to be on the edge of shattering from all it had been through lately. I didn't know if I could stand his rejection again. As I dwelled on it more and more while putting makeup on, making a quick bagel, and then crawling through morning traffic, I got angrier with myself.
Why couldn't I stop wanting him? He didn't want me, obviously. All I had been shown was rejection, over and over. How could I keep torturing myself like this? Damn mate bond. I wanted to rip my wolf out of my body and exile it to the forest. My chest ached more at that, though. The wolf and I were one, and there would never be anything I could do to change that . . . no matter how "human" I acted.
I just wished I could change the mate bond, or—better yet—destroy it. That seemed like it would solve all my current issues.
His car wasn't there when I pulled in. Clamping my jaw, I grabbed my purse from the passenger seat and got out of the car. Angelica was already up in her office when I arrived, so I got my desk set up. A tour schedule had been taped to the keyboard, and I felt an ounce of hope at remembering I wouldn't be stuck behind the desk today. The first tour wasn't until one that afternoon, so I had time to take care of other duties until then and do a little research on the houses I'd be showing since I had never seen them in person.
Shortly before our clients would be showing up, Angelica came out of hiding and found me organizing information folders for the clients. She flashed me a forced smile, pleased by my work yet clearly distracted by something else.
"I just came to make sure you're prepared for the showings," she said, "but I see you already are. Always so ahead of the game. I like that about you, Lee."
"Thank you." I returned her smile.
"Well, I'll leave you alone. Just holler if you need anything," she told me. When I nodded, she turned away for a moment, only to spin back around the next. "Oh. And did you see that the Melodys were outbid on the Creek Drive house?"
My mind reflected on the painful memories of the gorgeous Spanish gable and how it owned a piece of my soul now, having been the place where my mate ravished my body. The blood drained from my face, but I turned away to keep her from seeing.
"That's unfortunate," I remarked. "They seemed really interested."
"They did, didn't they?" She clucked her tongue against her teeth. "The new bidder put down over fifty-thousand what they offered."
"That's really something." My voice sounded minimally interested. Her words weren't sinking in; I was too occupied with warding off the wave of heartbreak.
Angelica left me alone after that. Our clients arrived and I spoke with them before driving us off to the house they were interested in. Although they claimed they liked it, I could tell it wasn't what they had imagined. I offered to do more research for them to help them find the house of their dreams, and the wife gave me her contact information. The other tour I had seemed more successful, and the young couple already requested the initial paperwork.
By five o'clock, I felt totally depleted. I straightened up my desk before clocking out. Angelica had made herself scarce the whole day, and I didn't want to bother her now. If she had wanted me to stay longer, I assumed she would've told me sooner. So I gathered my belongings and headed for the door.
Just before I reached it, it flew open. I froze, eyes widening, while my body tensed for defense. Regardless of what I had expected, a sobbing Lorrie came stumbling into the lobby. Her presence was so shocking I couldn't comprehend what was happening. Not even when she all but fell onto me, grabbing my shoulders to keep herself from falling. Once things had processed, I felt the overwhelming urge to shove her back and pin her to a wall. She was the reason my mate didn't want me, after all.
But I didn't. I sucked down my pride, my hurt, and my sensibilities.
"Is everything okay?" I asked her, though it obviously wasn't.
"No!" She shuddered with another sobbed and steadied herself on me. "Tandan tried to kill me! I don't know what happened. He just turned into that monster and almost ripped my throat out! I know I can't go to the police, but I didn't know where else to go and—"
"Lorrie," called Angelica from behind me, cool and collected. "I'm glad you came here. Come with me and I'll make you some hot tea. You can tell me exactly what happened."
The woman released me, taking the powerful scent of my mate with her, and left me to glare at the door. My emotions were a swirling mass of confusion. Why would he try to kill her? I doubted that was what actually happened. She probably pissed him off and he lost control.
"Go find him," Angelica ordered, snapping me out of a daze. "He lives on Noble Bend."
Her words were all I needed to go. Without allowing myself to think, I went out to my car, plugged the street name into my phone, and peeled out. No matter how badly my mate hurt me, I knew I would be the only one who could handle him if he'd become a menace. Besides, my wolf was aching to see him again. So here goes nothing.