Page 66 of An Oath at Midnight

Payne’s gaze burned into me for several seconds as the enormity of what I just said and what it meant for me sunk in. “Mate?”

“Yes, mate.” And my mate had rejected me. I would live beside the only female I wanted for the rest of my life, but she would never be mine. Anger filled me, no, fucking rage. Maybe things would’ve been different if Clayton hadn’t hurt her, if she hadn’t withdrawn so deeply into herself, maybe…

I scrubbed my hands over my face. No. That was all bullshit. I didn’t know why she didn’t feel the mating bond between us, but she obviously didn’t because if she did, she would have welcomed my kiss, she would’ve wrapped her arms around me and fucking held on, she would have…

Stop.

I gripped the sides of my head. My mind needed to shut the fuck up.

It was done. Over.

The hope I’d been clinging to for six years needed to fucking die.

“I’m sorry,” Payne said. “I know you don’t want to hear this, but mate or not, she wasn’t right for you. Others at the village have taken lovers after the loss of a mate and so could you. She was selfish, like all witches. They can’t be fucking trusted. You don’t have to stay tethered to her—you’re a warrior, the son of a chieftain, you deserve a female who would do anything to prove her worth to you.”

“Don’t,” I bit out. “Magnolia isn’t Farah. You don’t fucking talk shit about her. Not ever. You say one more thing against her and you and I will have a problem we won’t ever come back from. There will be no other female, not for me, not ever. Understand?”

Payne’s lips peeled back and a throaty caw rose from his chest. We didn’t mention his ex, Maeve’s mom, ever. Payne refused to talk about her, but I didn’t give a fuck. Instead of losing his shit like usual, though, that steely control kicked in and he bit back whatever he wanted to say and turned to our brothers. “Ready?”

Talon grinned evilly and Rook dipped his chin, his eyes sliding to his prey.

Payne’s wings burst from his back. “Let’s go.”

We took flight, dropping from the sky, right in the middle of the hyena camp. They shot to their feet, and the moment they got a good look at us, fear filled their eyes. They knew exactly who we were and what it meant when my brothers and I dropped in.

We were the boogeymen. Monsters whispered about but never out loud, afraid if they did, we’d come for them as well—and we would.

I strode toward my target as Talon laughed. Payne moved with purpose, killing with precision, and Rook, like me, was playing with his prey. These twisted fucks deserved to suffer for what they’d done, and they would.

But when I shadowed out, surprising the fucker who had human blood smeared on his face and soaked into his clothes, there was no excitement, not for me, not anymore, not even as I watched the life bleed from his eyes—only a moment of relief.

When we left a while later, the ground was soaked with their blood. I was bitten and clawed, and I relished in the pain. This was the part where I’d go home to Mags, and I could admit that sometimes I let myself get hurt just so she could tend my wounds. A kind of twisted foreplay in anticipation of having her hands on my bare skin.

The urge to go to her, to go to my tree house in her backyard and pretend nothing was wrong, that nothing had happened between us just so she could touch me now was so damn tempting. But I couldn’t do it. If I went back now, I’d fucking beg her to want me. I’d crawl on my knees in front of her. I’d fall at her feet and fucking beg for her to take this pain away.

Because without hope, I was lost. Magnolia was my sky and earth, my moon and stars. She was my reason. My everything. She was my fucking oxygen.

And without her, I wasn’t sure how to breathe anymore.

CHAPTER 17

Magnolia

My world had been ripped out from under my feet. I didn’t know anything anymore, not even my own feelings. I was confused and felt sick to my stomach. I missed Bram so badly it hurt, and I’d spent the night in his bed alone, crying so fucking hard my throat was raw this morning.

I’d tried calling him multiple times—he hadn’t answered.

He hadn’t come home. I knew he wouldn’t but still I’d hoped he’d change his mind, that I’d wake up in his arms and everything would go back to the way it was.

I shoved my mug away, the coffee only making my stomach worse.

“We got a corpse,” Asher said across from me.

I’d called her early this morning, filled her in on everything that was happening, well, everything except what happened with Bram, and she’d agreed to come with me today. Ash also had a way of forcing me out of my own head, and I needed that more than ever.

I took her phone, scanning the post on Nightscape. Calvin’s body had been found last night by some teenagers. They’d broken in to hang out and get drunk and found a decomposing, mutilated body instead. I quickly read the rest of the article and scanned the comment section, then wished I hadn’t. There were a lot of familiar names taking potshots at Willow, accusing her of all kinds of fucked-up shit.

I slid the phone back to Ash. “Now they’ll be even more convinced it was Willow. I’m not even sure the council’s looking elsewhere. They’re staying quiet right now, and it’s not fucking helping.” I tapped the table. “Isaac is involved in this somehow, beyond being fuck buddies with the prom committee.”