*Sasha*
Lucas.
He was there, just twenty feet in front of .
Automatically, I smiled at him and started toward him. Relief swept through , seeing him alive and well. He didn’t look wild, crazy, or dangerous like I’d expected him to.
The bond between us was still strong. I knew he felt it too. The look on his face told he felt exactly what I felt.
Each step felt like I was floating toward him, my entire body aching to be in his arms.
Just as I got close enough, he scoffed and shook his head.
Waving at dismissively, Lucas turned and walked down the path.
My smile faded and my wolf whined.
“Hey, wait.” I tried to run after him and catch him.
Lucas ignored completely. He didn’t even look in my direction.
“Wait. I’m trying to talk to you. Look, I know this is awkward but we have sothing to talk about.”
He still ignored , turning down a side street. I wasn’t familiar with this city, but I wasn’t going to let him get away.
“Get back here!” I hurried down the street after him, shouting.
People started to stare at us, and I hoped it would make enough of a scene to get him to pay attention.
“Where are you going!? We need to talk!”
I caught up to him at the end of the street and grabbed his arm.
Lucas growled and shook off. He glared at .
“Leave alone! I don’t know you. We have nothing to talk about!”
I recoiled, gasping. “Hey, you don’t have to be so rude.”
Lucas paused and his scowl softened slightly. He crossed his arms and looked over, his eyes running slowly up and down my body.
I caught the look of appreciation in his eyes. He even circled around , assessing head to toe, front to back.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m trying to figure out why a nice girl like you is so insistent on running down a stranger in the streets.”
“How do you know I’m nice?” I glanced over my shoulder at him.
Lucas scoffed and ca back around to the front. He still had a scowl on his face.
“You called rude. Therefore, you’re used to being treated better. Hence, you’re a nice girl.”
“Oh well, that’s an odd way to look at it.”
It was like talking to a stranger. I felt like I’d never t this man in my life. But the mate bond was still so strong and he was definitely Lucas.
“Now, I’m sure you have a real interesting personality and all, but I don’t spend ti with nice girls.”
It was clear to that Lucas didn’t rember anything about . If I started telling him about alternate tilines and magical powers, I had a feeling this would be a short conversation.
“Nice girls usually have families. Don’t you have a nice family you should get back to?”
I crossed my arms and glared at him. “Don’t you?”
Lucas snorted and shook his head. “Who the fuck are you?” His tone beca harsh and edgy.
“My na is Sasha. I saw you at the Winter Moon mansion and I... felt the mate bond.”
I looked at my feet, feeling heat spread over my cheeks and down my neck.
“Oh, that? Is that why you’re running after ?”
I nodded slowly and looked into his eyes. Lucas looked bored, uninterested. He seed completely unaffected by the mate bond, even though I knew he felt what I felt.
My heart clenched when I looked into his eyes. How could he so easily ignore it or treat it like sothing casual that happened every day?
“And you thought that because of the mate bond, you should run after so strange man and hope it had a happy ever after?”
“Well... not exactly.” I bit my lower lip and rocked back on my heels. It was confusing talking to this version of Lucas. I never knew what he was going to say or how he was going to respond.
“Look, this isn’t so romantic fairytale where our eyes et and suddenly, we’re madly in love. Don’t get the wrong idea just because so feelings twitched when you first saw .”
“I don’t understand. Why are you saying these things?”
It was too much to hope that Lucas would rember just from seeing . The last ti it wasn’t until I kissed him that my mories returned. This Lucas didn’t seem willing to let get that close.
He was so rough and cruel. It was going to take more than a little conversation to get through to him.
“I don’t want or have ti for a mate. So, do you want to reject or should I reject you?”
“What!?” I gasped. My eyes snapped to his face.
“I really don’t have all day here. This would go a lot faster if you just told what you want.”
“I don’t want you to reject and I don’t want to reject you.”
“Sorry, girlie, but you have to choose one. I’m not going to live the rest of my life with so invisible thread connecting us. That’s just... inconvenient. See, I like to have fun with won and a mate bond would... hinder that.”
I shook my head in disbelief. “I don’t want either.”
Lucas scoffed. “Alright, your problem, not mine.” He shrugged and started walking away.
I stood there, too stunned to move. Lena and Maeve had warned , but I never imagined Lucas being like this.
I almost prefer Stone to this Lucas, I thought.
Eww, I did not just think that....
“H-hang on.” I ran after Lucas and grabbed his arm.
He growled but he didn’t shake off this ti. Was that progress? I hoped so.
“What more do you want to say? I have no use for a mate. If you’re not going to choose, then we can just go our separate ways and neither of us has to think about it again.”
I couldn’t help the tears that sprang to my eyes. I blinked them back because I knew this Lucas would get even more annoyed. He might even patronize more than he already was.
“Most shifters are happy when they find their mates.”
“I’m not most shifters.”
I bit my lower lip and bowed my head. My fingers slipped from his arm and I just stood there, too lost to co up with anything else to say.
Lucas sighed heavily and I looked at him. At least, he had the decency to look apologetic.
“I know this isn’t what you wanted. I’m sure you’ve had fantasies of finding your mate your whole life.”
“This isn’t what I expected,” I admitted.
“I’m sorry that you got stuck with soone like , truly. Really, you’ll be a lot happier with soone else. I wouldn’t wish on anyone that I truly cared about.”
I furrowed my brow. That was a weird thing for him to say, almost like he didn’t think he was good enough to have his mate, and he had to settle with soone else because he didn’t want to hurt his mate for being who he was.
That sounded a little more like the Lucas I knew.
“Are you... are you with soone now? Do you... have a girlfriend?”
Lucas gave a ‘is that any of your business?’ look. Quickly, he wiped it from his face and nodded.
“I do have a girlfriend. And she’s not a nice girl.” He smirked like that was sohow better.
“Oh.”
My chest flared with jealousy and I clenched my fists. There was no way I was going to let Lucas end up with so hussy in this tiline or any other....
“See. I’m not soone you want and I already have soone. You should just forget about .”
I scoffed. It was hard to tell if he was saying that as a way to get to leave him alone or if it was true.
“You’re nothing like I imagined. What happened to you to make you push those closest away? What is so awful about your life that you’d settle for soone you don’t care about rather than your own mate?”
Lucas’s eyes popped wide and he took a half-step back. He grimaced like I’d physically struck him.
“Goddess, I thought you’d be noble, strong, and... a decent guy.”
Lucas sneered. “Everyone’s a critic.”
“Well fine! If you want to live a aningless life without anyone to care about you....”
“That’s exactly what I want!”
I shook my head. “You’re such a liar. My advice to you: when soone reaches out and offers a hand, don’t slap it away.”
Lucas opened his mouth to retort and then closed it quickly. He obviously had no good coback.
I took a step toward him but sothing flickered in the corner of my eye. I froze and glanced to the side.
The immortal shifter was standing on the other side of the street.
A bolt of fear went through . My legs trembled. All my confidence evaporated in an instant.
This guy was here to kill . I knew he was.
The Immortal stepped off the curb, getting closer. He moved slowly and deliberately, his form nacing. I hadn’t seen him in so long I thought that maybe I lost him in ti.
No such luck–he’d been following through the tilines.
“Shit!”
“Um... was there more you wanted to say?” Lucas asked behind .
I didn’t respond. Closing my eyes, I called on my power. It had been a few tilines since I’d accessed it, but it was the only thing I knew of that would throw that guy on his ass.
I reached for my power but nothing happened. I tried again and still couldn’t feel my power.
“Crap!”
The Immortal kept getting closer and I was powerless....
I knew he’d kill if I gave him the chance. He’d been trying to orchestrate my death for a while. Whoever he was, there was no doubt he’d have his mories from tiline to tiline.
“Sasha?”
Under any other circumstances, I would have been happy to hear Lucas say my na. This was not the ti.
I doubted Lucas would defend against so unknown adversary. He was trying to get away from as quickly as possible, and he made it clear he was willing to reject , so he probably didn’t care if I died.
Without my magic, I couldn’t take on The Immortal. I just had to get away from him.
“I... uh... I gotta go!” I turned on my heel and ran.
“Sasha! What the hell?”
I ignored Lucas’s calls and took off into the woods. The only way to save myself was to distance myself from The Immortal.
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