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Kade pulled up to her house just ten minutes later. He’d hit every damn red light. The front door was locked, so he knocked. And knocked. Okay. He backed up and stared at the front of the rental house, thinking. The bike she used to go into town was still leaning against the garage. Maybe she walked somewhere. The book nook!

He took off at a jog and reached it in a couple minutes, but she wasn’t there. Crap. Where was she?

A familiar book peeked through the window of the little neighborhood library. He opened the glass and found not only the book she’d been reading, but the one he’d taken and left at her house. She’d returned them both.

Mind racing, Kade closed the little door with a click and backed up a few paces, hands linked behind his head. Something was happening.

He ran to her house, feeling panicked. His skin tingled with the urge to Change. Maybe Connor had found her and taken her. Or Derek. Or Samuel. Fuck! He should’ve been more careful. He should’ve asked her to stay at his house up in Wreck’s Mountains.

He went and knocked on her door again, tried the handle again, and then strode around the house to check the back door. He texted Garret on the way.I need the spare key for the rental house. Can I come pick it up?

Garret’s response of,Sure, was immediate, and happened right before Kade looked up to the back porch to see a brick on the edge of the firepit. The breeze lifted the edge of a piece of paper under it.

Kade took the stairs two at a time and pulled the brick up to find the key to the house, and a letter. The handwriting was graceful, looping cursive, and he scanned the signature at the bottom. Jess had written this.

I’m sorry.

Kade, I’m so sorry. I should’ve been up front with you and told you my feelings weren’t right. I could tell you were growing to care for me, but it felt good after everything, you know? And I didn’t stop myself, and I led you on, and I’m so sorry.

I’ve been talking to people from Sister’s Edge and have been sitting in my decision to stay in Darby, or to go back home, and I’ve decided to go home. I had fun hanging out with you and your Crew, but your life isn’t for me. I’m sorry. I asked Tawk to come get me and take me back to Sister’s Edge. I’ve decided to find a new Promise, and my hope is that you move on. Move forward. Find someone who matches you. I’m not her.

Thank you for being so kind to me, Kade. Thank you for trying.

I will forever remember your effort. I wish I was the woman you saw in me.

Truly, I’m sorry to leave like this and hope you forgive me someday.

Jess the Cactus

In disbelief, Kade plucked the key from where it had been hidden under the brick and opened the back door. Inside, on the kitchen table, she’d neatly folded the stacks of clothes the girls had given her. All of the food was still here, and the full-length mirror she’d bought for this place. A quick scan of all the rooms said she’d only taken what she’d come here with.

On the bedside table, the velvet jewelry bag lay empty. He sank down on the neatly made bed and gripped the soft velvet bag. A hollowness stretched out inside of him as he stared at the pattern of the carpet. He’d never felt so empty. Not when he’d gone to Cold Foot Prison, even.

Why? Why had she allowed them to get so far and then ripped everything away? Why would she do that?

Had he really misread every single cue from her? Had he misread her?

I wish I was the woman you saw in me.

Kade stood and flipped the bedside table into the wall. The agony of a loss he couldn’t even understand washed through him like a tidal wave.

I wish I was the woman you saw in me.

He gripped the back of his hair and yelled. The bellow that shook the house didn’t even sound human. Kade squatted down and covered the back of his head with his arms, trying to drag air into his concrete lungs.

Four was the number of times she’d said she was sorry in that letter, but sorry wasn’t enough. What did words mean? Nothing. Action was bigger. He didn’t care about her sorrys. It didn’t make any of this even one percent easier. He wanted her here, with him. He wanted to hug her and see her laughing with the girls from his Crew. He wanted to feel her happiness. He wanted her to see his home. He wanted her towantto be Promised to him again.

Kade wanted her to match him, and now she was considering a Promise to another, the night after she’d touched his soul?

I wish I was the woman you saw in me.

Damn it all…he wished that too.

Chapter Fifteen

“Hello!” Derek barked.

Jess shook her head and forced her attention from the pattern of the woodgrain in the table, to her Alpha.