Chapter 926

And as he knew she would, Daphne tilts her head back and laughs – long and peeling. He smiles a little, watching her, relishing that. Daphne - she's not easily offended, and she has enough self-confidence not to let herself be hurt by such a deeply untrue judgment.

"Oh, god," Daphne says, still laughing and wiping a little beneath her eye. "Maybe...let's not introduce this one to my mother."

"No problem," he sighs.

Daphne smiles over at him, soft. "You've had some serious adventures, your Grace."

"You're avoiding the question, seamstress," he murmurs, his mouth turning up at the corners.

She raises an eyebrow in challenge.

"What do you think?" he asks, wanting to know her true opinion on the whole situation all of it.

"I think," she says with a little sigh, looking down at the kitten, understanding it all. "That...we had a good run, Jess. But I can't keep loving you if you have a mate, bond accepted or no."

"Are you in love with me now?" he asks, quietly.

She raises her eyes to his. "Please don't make me answer that."

He swallows rough around the lump in his throat. "But, given time -"

She shakes her head. "Jesse, given time, your strange traumatized little mate is going to become accustomed to the world. And she's going to want you, and you're going to want her. Even though you're not in love with her now, given time? You will be. And then where will I be?"

“Midnight is...never going to be normal in this world,” Jesse murmurs, covering his eyes with one hand.

"Do you think she's pretty?" Daphne asks, her voice deceptively calm.

He moves his hands from his eyes to look at her. "What?"

"Don't pretend you didn't hear me, Sinclair," she says, narrowing her eyes at him, making him smile.

He laughs a little but then sighs. "Yes, Midnight is pretty, Daphne."

"The Goddess picked her for you, Jess," Daphne whispers, leaning forward towards him with a smile, acting her heart out, pretending to be happy and peaceful and beatific about it all, while inside her wolf howls in agony to be letting him go. "She's your mate. It's going to happen someday - you'll love each other. I don't...want to be drug along for weeks or months or years just to be left at the end. Leave me now, in peace and...we'll have had a good run."

Jesse's heart breaks a thousand times as he stares at her, unable to believe it. Unable to accept it. He sits up, leaning close, looking steadily into her eyes. "You know that there's more to us than that, Daphne – than just a good run. That we have a connection that is deeper and that neither of us fully understand."

"You have a mate, Jesse," Daphne whispers, reaching out and cupping his cheek in her palm. "I can never, ever live up to that."

He closes his eyes and leans into her hand. "But I want you."noveldrama

She rushes her thumb once over his cheek and slides her hand down and away,

her fingertips brushing the stubble that starts on his jaw. "You won't forever."

He opens his eyes, staring at her, thinking that she's wrong about that.

But also that...that there's no logic in the world that would support his conviction that Daphne is the girl he wants. Mates are it – end game. No other girl should be able to live up to it.

And Midnight...she deserves more than that. More than this even, him visiting

another girl, telling her that he loves her, that he wants her more.

Guilt sweeps through Jesse on both ends - for how he's treating Daphne and Midnight alike.

God, fuck, did he claim to be a good guy earlier tonight?

What a bald-faced lie. Selfish. He's being selfish, on both accounts.

"You should go," Daphne whispers, her voice trembling. When he lifts his head again he sees her working hard to put on a brave face. "Home to your girl, Jesse."

He clenches his jaw but he stands. His hand moves forward for a moment, wanting to pull her up and into a hug but...he pulls it back, knowing it's asking too much.

"I'll see you soon?" he asks, his heart aching. "Back at school, for the rest of the spring term?"

"Sure," Daphne says, giving him a smile. "Um, tell Ariel I said hi, please. And Rafe and Ben and..." she wrinkles her nose a bit and his wolf howls, falling hard to the ground of his soul. "Luca, I guess, if you see him."

Jesse smiles at her and nods, slipping his hands into his pockets. And then he turns, without a word, and walks out of the room, closing the door behind him.

In the darkness, Daphne reaches out a hand and strokes it over the little shadow kitten's head again and again. He purrs, pressing his face against her palm.

"I guess this is goodbye, Mittens," she whispers, tears streaking down her face, waiting for him to disappear.

But he doesn't.

And Daphne cries harder, laying herself down on the bed, gathering the precious little shard of Jesse's soul to her chest, stroking her fingers over the kitten's fur until she again falls asleep.