She sighed, but her arms didn’t uncross.
“I don’t think I’ll ever forgive you for what you said that night. I’ll never be able to let my guard down with you again. I’ll never believe you again when you say that you love me. It’s all just… broken. We can’t go back.”
Hot tears were in my eyes, then on my cheeks.
I dashed them away and looked at the floor.
“Um… okay. I understand.”
I got to my feet and backed up towards the door.
“I’ll move my things out of the house, and you can come home with Sam and Dane. Neither of them forgives me either, so it’s probably best that you three stay together.”
I moved to walk away, and Celeste called out, “What did you mean, the pack was in danger?”
I turned back to face her. “The bears want blood. Mine, yours, they don’t care. They want our pack extinct, gone. So, we either need to change their minds, or we need to fight them.”
“Oh, so I was going to be a sacrifice for peace. How noble of you.”
Her tone was hard, unforgiving, and the darkness of my guilt consumed me.
“You have it all wrong, sweetheart, as Dexter and Grayson can attest. I lied to the bears to give us a few weeks to plan. Nothing more. I’d rather die than ever see you hurt.”
She didn’t answer me, only turned back to face her baby once again.
There was only one way forward and that was to eliminate the bears once and for all.
“I love you, Celeste.”
She didn’t look my way agai
n, but it didn’t matter. I was able to say the only words I wanted her to hear. Then I left.
I left the hospital, and I left my pack.
The bears wanted blood, so I’d give it to them.
Chapter 12.
Sam.
I watched my Alpha walk out of the hospital and for some reason, I had the most horrible suspicion I’d never see him again.
“I think we need to go speak to Celeste now.”
I stood up and walked into the hospital room with Dane.
Then I stopped.
My heart was full.
I couldn’t believe how beautiful she was, sitting there with our baby within arm’s reach.
“Celeste.” I went straight over to her hospital bed and tried to gather her into my arms. “You’re awake. Please, never leave us again. We love you too much to go through that fear again.”
She laughed as she put her head on my chest. “Put you through it? What about me? I missed out on my daughter’s birth and seemed to have toppled off a cliff.”
I kissed her upturned face. Her button nose. Her forehead. Her pale pink lips.