Chapter 7 Dylan

Chapter 7 Dylan

I clenched my fists together as I watched Cherry’s red car disappear around the bend. I cracked my jaw as I grasped that she’d really gone. I felt something rupture inside of me, and my wolf rose within me, howling in desolation. I felt the beast itching beneath my skin as if nipping and scratching to get out. Yet, I knew if I let my primal instinct take over, the beast would bolt after Cherry again. The urge warred within me, and it took all my strength to wrestle the lupine shadow into submission. I wouldn’t let it surface and chase after her. Not after she’d rejected me so resolutely.

Instead, I returned at an ambling human pace, climbing over a gate into a field belonging to Starsmoon. But the vast and far-reaching fields I ordinarily found so full of space and freedom felt empty today. They no longer had Cherry in them.

She was gone. The knowledge beat through me again like a quake through the earth. As I walked, the memory of her silver eyes, steely with resolve, made me flinch. When she’d made up her mind, Cherry didn’t waver. I knew that about her now. I’d admired her steadfast nature. I’d grown to admire it over the last few months. Her commitment to getting onto a fashion course was evident in the way she’d worked so hard. But now I knew that her resolute nature meant that if she’d decided to leave, she wasn’t coming back. And the worst thing was, with the way I’d treated her, she was right not to.

She deserved better. She deserved to have the real relationship and full life she’d spoken of. As the image of Cherry with someone else crossed my mind, the beast beneath my skin threatened to surge up again, but I balled my hands into fists, forcing myself back toward the pack. The scents of summer crowded the balmy air, stirring the ripe grasses idly as if caressing them. The rich meadow was at odds with my own inner turmoil, and suddenly I hated the temperate weather and craved a storm. I wanted something outwardly to reflect the despair I felt inside. Like the deepest, darkest winter, my wolf howled like a storm through the shattered crevices inside me.

As I passed the guards stationed at the entrance to Lord Hills, the ones who’d called me to tell me that Cherry had seemed upset and driven away, I felt their worried eyes trailing me. I would need to tell the whole pack that Cherry was gone, but my parents, my Alpha and Luna, needed to hear first.

Pulling back the outer door to my parents’ house, I strolled in. My mom was making coffee in the kitchen, and my dad sat on the veranda out back, enjoying the mild day. It seemed strange to see them going about their daily lives as usual while everything in me was raw. I felt as if an enemy wolf had savaged me, and I was walking around bleeding from a gaping wound.

The light in my mom’s eyes dulled as she cottoned on to my unease. “Dylan, what’s wrong?”

“Everything,” I wanted to say.

My dad got out of his chair and hurried into the kitchen. “Son?” The urgent Alpha’s command in his tone forced me to speak.

“Cherry’s gone.”

I watched confusion mar their faces, but my mom’s expression eased. “Oh, she’s probably nipped to her dad’s.”

I shook my head, the words threatening to stick in my throat, but knowing I needed to tell them everything.

“She’s rejected the mating bond. She’s left the pack.”

Their faces showed the same bleakness resounding through me, and I realized it wasn’t better to see my loss so visibly. Instead, their disappointment only heightened my sense of guilt. After all, it was my fault. Cherry had left because I’d failed to nurture our mating bond.

“I can’t believe it,” my mom said, her voice awash with sorrow. She shook her head, her shock making her deny it. “Cherry wouldn’t leave the pack she grew up with.”

My dad’s expression fell too, and I knew he was thinking of my future and the pack’s. Cherry was supposed to be the future Luna of Starsmoon. The weight of the news settled on him, the grave expression on his strong features making him look older suddenly.

My chest felt like it was caving in as I forced myself to admit she’d gone because of me. This was my failure. “It’s my fault. I was too obstinate. I refused to accept something I hadn’t chosen for myself. I neglected our bond My voice grew thick on the last word, and the invisible wound in my chest continued to bleed. With a moment of stark insight, I knew deep down this wound would never heal fully.

“Oh, Dylan, love, I’m so sorry,” My mom wrapped her arms around me, but I didn’t squeeze her back, worried that if I did, I’d shatter completely. I didn’t have the luxury of showing my hurt. I was the Alpha-in-training. I wouldn’t show weakness, not even to my parents.

My dad was the first to mention practicalities. “We’ll take care of canceling the caterers, but I think it’ll be best if you talk to the pack later.”

Hardening my stare, I said, “Thanks. And yes, I’ll tell them later.” My jaw clenched, and I added, “But it’s not over. We can talk more about all of this later.”

I didn’t miss the worried look my parents exchanged, which said that there was nothing to talk about. Nothing could be done, not if Cherry had rejected the mating bond between us. But needing space, I left them, stalking down the path to my own house.

I realized that it was only now, with my heart feeling like shrapnel in my chest, that I knew what it wanted. It wanted its mate. I wanted Cherry. I’d fallen in love with her but too late. If I’d only swallowed my pride and nurtured our relationship by showing her the affection she deserved, I knew with my every fiber that our love would have grown.

Her words from only hours ago haunted me in a way I knew they’d continue to for years: “it’s not enough, Dylan. We’re not enough. I want a real relationship, a full life.”

As I saw her keys in the bowl, regret swamped me. I thought of how she’d spent the majority of the year under this roof, trying to get to know me, only for me to throw it back in her face. I’d kept her at arm’s length, hiding behind excuses and retreating from her as much as I could.

Then, over the last few months, I’d stagnated, refusing to take things any further than being friends. I had believed that I had all the time in the world for us to know each other and that if we were meant to be together, it would happen in its own time.

Like a blind man, I wandered into the living-room, my gaze skittering around as if searching for something. It stopped on the cushions Cherry had made. Covers that bore my mate’s namesake: Cherry blossom. It was one of the little quirks I’d learned about her over the last few months as she’d shared her designs with me. In every one, she liked to hide her mark in it somewhere. Even in the clothes she made, she’d invariably stitched the detail of two cherries in. It was her signature in every piece she made.

Desperation seized me, and I stumbled into her bedroom. My chest tightened as I took in the empty dresser and the wardrobe. Even the bed had been stripped of her sheets and duvet set. She’d left the duvet and pillows neatly bundled on the mattress.

I collapsed on the bed, clutching the covers to my face. I dragged in a deep lungful of breath, hoping to find her scent buried in the material. I needed her sweet perfume, peppered with the grassy undertone of the pack, but the bedding was absent of it. My heart sank.

The silence in the house rang so loudly around me, and I closed my eyes, trying to imagine her in the living room, in a sea of sketches. I pictured her petite body lying on the living-room floor, her back and long neck as graceful as a dancer’s as she drew flowing lines onto a blank page. Desperately, my tortured mind tried to conjure the scratch of her pencil and the shuffle of papers. I wanted to pretend that she was back. I needed everything to be okay, even if it was only for a moment. But the longer I sat there, the more aware I was of my own breathing and of my hurried heartbeat, telling me that things weren’t okay.

Blinking my eyes open, I saw the one piece of clothing left in the room, hanging from the wardrobe door: the silver dress Cherry had been supposed to wear at our Moon Ceremony. Each fine bead laced into the fabric sparkled like dew on a spider’s web.

My breath caught in my chest as I remembered how devastatingly beautiful she’d looked in the gown the night she’d worn it. Suppressed groans of desire shivered through me as I recalled stroking her beautiful curves through the sheer silk. I remembered her curves and softness pressed up against me, and my cock stirred. Too vividly, the texture of her soft hair fisted in my hand came back to me. Then, a flash of her molten silver eyes pulsed through me.

“Mine,” I remembered growling. The word had thrummed with all the hunger of my wolf and a need that shot up from my very foundation.

With blinding clarity, I realized that it wasn’t just this house that was full to bursting with memories of Cherry, but that, like the designs she crafted, I was part of her now too.

I was hers.