Cronan is angry. Angry that after years of waiting, he's mated to the one wolf he never wanted.
Fen is stuck. Stuck in a state of purgatory that he doesn't know how to escape from.
After learning of his mate's crimes, Cronan never expected to see h...
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"What are you doing here?" Fen hissed out as he shut the door.
"Was that wolf your former—"
"Why are you here?"
His sharp tone caught me off guard. It shouldn't have; I should've been prepared for it, given how we left things, but I wasn't. I wasn't prepared for the way he stared at me like he was about to scold a child, and I wasn't prepared for the obvious sign of pain that lingered in his eyes.
"I came for you," I admitted. I—"
"No." Fen shook his head.
"No?"
"Go back home, Cronan," he ordered.
"Fen—"
"Go."
I wanted to keep arguing and tell him I wouldn't leave, but I didn't get the chance to when a tiny meow broke free from the carrier perched on the ground beside the foot of the bed. Fen's gaze flickered to the carrier, his resolve faltering for just a second. I saw the way his shoulders tensed, the way his breath hitched when he recognized the sound.
"You—" His voice cracked, disbelief and frustration mixing together. "You brought CJ?"
I nodded slowly, watching him closely. "I thought... maybe you missed him."
For a moment, Fen looked torn, his eyes lingering on the carrier where the small, familiar meow came again. The room grew quiet, except for that soft cry. I could see the war in his eyes, the way he battled with himself over what to do, how much to let in.
"You can't just—" Fen clenched his jaw, turning away from me like the sight of the carrier hurt more than he wanted to admit. "You can't just show up with him and expect things to go back to how they were."
"I don't expect that," I said quietly, stepping closer but stopping when I saw the tension in his posture. "I just... I couldn't leave without trying one last time."
"One last time for what?" Fen asked bitterly, though his eyes never left the carrier.
"For us," I whispered. "And I couldn't leave CJ behind. Not when I know how much you love him."
Fen's hands trembled slightly before he crossed his arms, trying to regain some of his composure. "You don't get to pull me back in, Cronan. Not like this."
"I know," I said, lowering my voice. "But I'm not here to fight. I'm here because... I don't want to lose you."
For the first time since I walked in, Fen looked at me, really looked at me, as if searching for something in my face that would make sense of the chaos between us.
"You don't want to lose me?" He repeated. "I told you I love you, Cronan. I told you that I love you and you basically told me it would never happen. That you could never love me."
