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“I will. You will see what your absence has done to me. It wasn’t pretty, but I’m willing to do what it takes to fix it if you are.”

He turned toward the door and left. I didn’t know what to say or do. My soul felt like it was trying to erupt from my chest to beg him to stay, my lycan howling at the loss of his presence in the room.

I didn’t want him to walk away.

But he just left everything in my court.

And I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.

31

Maximus

Walking out of that room was the most difficult thing I had ever done in my life. I thought rejecting my fated mate would be hard, but this was far worse. Knowing I was walking away from Kylie and our pup had my lycan roaring inside of me. While he threw himself against the walls of my mind, I walked out of the clinic and tried to contain him. Now wasn’t the time to let him loose. Kylie wanted me to prove myself to her, and my lycan wasn’t patient enough to do that. If he got loose, he would run back in there and mark her to make her ours again.

I couldn’t let that happen.

Go back, you fool!

The pain of him trying to force the shift stopped me in my tracks. My eyes closed as I fought him, desperately trying to keep him contained. During that whole conversation, I struggled toprevent him from shifting. He didn’t understand the need for waiting and proving ourselves. The only thing he understood was seeing his mate after months of thinking she was dead and then seeing her hurt. The need to comfort her was too strong, and I couldn’t trust him not to take over and mark her. When he promised he just wanted to console her, I hesitated, but I couldn’t explain how happy I was that she had told me no.

When I opened my eyes, two people stood a few feet away from me, giving me a sympathetic look. I didn’t know who either of them was, and I wanted to tell them to get lost. But they smelled of my mate, which caused my lycan to demand to know who they were.

The female was maybe five and a half feet tall, with small curves and an athletic body. I could tell she would be lethal in a fight from the way she carried herself, and there was a wave of power radiating from her as she stared at me. There was some fading in her black hair, indicating she was much older than her youthful face suggested. Even her blue eyes conveyed wisdom, and I almost wanted to ask her age and who the hell she was. There was something familiar about her, but I couldn’t quite place it. The male was similar in terms of the power and wisdom he exuded. He was close to my height and built like every other alpha I’d ever met. Like the female, his brown hair appeared duller than I’d expect from a young lycan, and his brown eyes were assessing me.

“Who are you?” I asked them both.

The female smiled. “I’m Charlotte, and this is my mate Nathaniel. I have a feeling I know who you are, and I’m wondering if you would like to talk.”

I growled. Did this female really think I would go off to be alone with two rogues I had never met before? That wasn’t happening.

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” I said through gritted teeth. “Who are you? You’re more than you seem. I can feel it.”

The male smiled at me, and I was taken aback by the kindness on his face. “You met us shortly after you were born, King Maximus. We were once alphas of a pack within your territory.”

Well, that explained why they seemed familiar. Even if our lycans don’t emerge until later in life, we never forget a scent.

“Why are you here?”

It wasn’t like alphas to abandon their packs and choose the rogue life. If my father had demanded that they leave, I doubted being in their presence right now was a good thing. I couldn’t sense anything particularly sketchy about them, and even my lycan felt at ease. They weren’t trying to challenge me, and the aura they emitted felt different from other alphas I’d met. These two didn’t want the power they wielded. That’s why they walked away. I could feel it even before they explained it to me.

“I’m sure you’ve heard of us. We were the ones who wanted a quieter life and renounced our titles. But we aren’t here to discuss ourselves,” Nathaniel said, waving his arm over to a small picnic bench outside the clinic.

We walked over, and I sat where I could have the best view of everyone coming and going, with my back as close to the wall as possible. This was a position many alphas would choose so they could see everything around them without worrying about onedirection. I expected Nathaniel to want this spot, but he gladly sat across from me instead.

“What happened in there?” Charlotte asked me. “Kylie didn’t want to talk about it.”

“And you thought I would? You are strangers to me. I don’t care that you were alphas once under my father’s rule. I don’t know you, and I’m not sure why I am even sitting here.”

There was too much rage churning inside me to stay seated anyway. There were so many things I needed to do. For one thing, I needed to see if there was a place for me to stay here so I could begin courting my mate. If she wanted me to prove to her that I had changed, then this had to be the first step.

“I’m sure things are tough right now, but holding all of that inside isn’t the way to go, my friend.” Charlotte frowned at me and looked at her mate. “I’m sure you will handle this better than I would. Maybe he needs a talk, alpha to alpha.”

He smiled at her and leaned in to kiss her forehead. “Sounds like it, my luna. Why don’t you go check on Kylie and the pup?”

Charlotte stood up, kissed the top of his head, and then walked into the clinic. It was hard to see a couple easily showing affection like that. It’s how Kylie and I should be, but I fucked that up too much to have that right now.

“Let me guess. You thought you could walk in here, say you’re sorry, and then everything would be sunshine and rainbows while you took her back to the kingdom. Am I correct?”