Page 56 of The Tracker's Secret

“Itisa stupid question,” he said. “Because you shouldn’t need to ask. You know the answer very well.” He stood up slowly and leaned closer, one hand pressed against the desk. For an instant, I thought he would haul me over the desk to pull me into his arms, but instead, he took a deep breath and stretched to his full height.

“I don’t know why I broke the promise I made you, and I can’t bring myself to break the one I made to my father.”

I rose to my feet, too, wanting desperately to reach for him, realizing, for the first time, how hard this was for him. Once more, I almost told him that I could be the one to help him fulfill his promise, but again, fear of the unknown stopped me.

“I would never ask you to break that promise,” I said. “I shouldn’t make things harder. I’m sorry.”

He smiled sadly, his chiseled lips tipped to one side, making me ache for a kiss. “I will always love you, Antonietta Sunder,” he said, sending my heart into a frenzy. “Please, be careful.” With that, he turned and walked out of the office.

Chapter 20

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JAKE AND I HAD NEVERsaid the “L” word.

Never.

And he’d just dropped that bomb on me and left.

I collapsed on my chair, staring blankly ahead, my heart slamming against my chest so hard that I could hear it with my new, enhanced ears.

I will always love you, Antonietta Sunder.

The words flashed inside my mind in huge block letters.

Jake loves me.

I wasn’t alone in this feeling. It wasn’t only attraction and passion and instinct. It was more.

More than ever, I wanted to tell him the truth, this secret that should’ve never been a secret. And yet, despite knowing how he felt about me, I was still scared. My need for answers grew more desperate. If I could understand how my life would change, what it would mean to fully embrace being a werewolf with Jake by my side, then I might be able to tell him everything.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow I would ask Eric everything I needed to know. He would tell me because I wouldn’t take no for an answer.

Rosalina appeared at the door. “What did he want?”

I shook myself out of my thoughts. “Uh,” I held up one finger, quickly pulled out my phone, and started the music app in case Jake was trying to eavesdrop. “He wanted to apologize about the other day at the party,” I said as Freddy Mercury belted “We are the champions.”