Cassian's POV
My footsteps are like that of a ghost—slow and unnoticeable as though I'm walking out of my mind.
To be denied by my mate should feel like shame. But what claws at me isn't shame at all. It's the raw ache her presence drags out of me, a wound that refuses to close.
It's like she's against the thread that connects us both, weakening it, making it fragile, ready to break at any moment.
"Elara." My lips mutter as I touch the knob to this large room, the room I hardly find myself in.
Should I go back to meet her?
No, she asked me to leave. She asked an Alpha to leave. Then I have to accept it's shameful, and the weight is too much for me not to mind.
I open the door of the large room.
I can't remember the last time I found myself here.
I linger at the door as though it belongs to someone else. My gaze snags on the bed. For a fleeting second, I imagine Elara there—yet even in my mind she turns away, retreating to the far side where I can't reach her.
