“You’re welcome, sweetheart.” Luke pushed her hair back from her face, trying to see her expression, her eyes, but since she kept her gaze down it was impossible. “We loved looking after you, Mel. You’re welcome at our place anytime.”
“Thank you. I’d better…go.”
She turned around and walked toward her car. Her shoulders were down in a slump as if she was feeling depressed, but there was nothing he and Damian could do. His and his brother’s life and happiness were all in her hands. So was her own, but he couldn’t tell her that.
Damian was leaning against the truck as if his knees would buckle out from under him if it weren’t for the support behind his back. Luke knew just how he felt. He took a step back and leaned next to his brother. They watched her get into her car, start the engine, put her safety belt on, and then she backed out of the parking space. With a quick glance in their direction, she waved and then drove away.
Luke’s wolf was howling inside him with pain, grief, and rage. His animal didn’t understand why he was letting their mate leave.
“Do you think she’ll come back?” he asked.
“I don’t know. I fucking hope so.”
When they could no longer see Melissa’s car, they got into the truck and headed home.
* * * *
Melissa felt like her heart was breaking in two. The further she got away from the Shifter’s Inn and Luke and Damian, the more she questioned her decision to leave. The wrench as she drove away was nearly more than she could stand. Tears burned the back of her eyes and the more she tried to quell them, the more they welled.
Finally, she pulled over onto the shoulder of the road, turned the ignition off, and bawled her eyes out. She’d never felt such pain before and didn’t know if she could continue to endure it. The agony she felt in her heart didn’t even compare to the embarrassment and humiliation she’d felt with Wesley Sands and she had known him for months before taking that next awful step with him.
She didn’t seem to know her own mind anymore, had no idea what she was supposed to do or feel, but one thing was certain. She couldn’t leave. Not now. Not ever.
Somehow, Damian and Luke had worked their way into her heart in such a short amount of time. No matter the consequences she couldn’t walk, or drive away.
When her tears slowed, she searched her purse for a tissue and after wiping her eyes and blowing her nose she shored up her backbone, started her car again and turned the car around.
Thankfully, she had taken note how to get to the pack land and headed toward it.
She was worried that she had done her dash with Damian and Luke, had wrecked any chance she had to be their mate.
Hopefully they would accept her back when she knocked on their door.
Nothing else mattered but being with them. Not her job or her sister, nothing. She was already half in love with them and had known them for just over twenty-four hours. How would she feel after knowing them longer?
Melissa hoped that they would forgive her reticence, her indecision, and welcome her with open arms.
There was only one way to find out if they cared for her and she was about to find out if what they said had been true.
Chapter Seven
Damian had been sitting in the living room staring into space since he and Luke had gotten home. He didn’t bother to look at the car he heard pull up outside the cabin, nor did he get up to answer the knock on the door. He didn’t think he’d ever feel alive again. He was numb inside and didn’t want to make nice with anyone visiting. He breathed in deeply, trying to dispel some of the pain in his chest, but it didn’t help. All he could smell was Melissa’s scent. Her natural perfume seemed to be everywhere and even though he’d opened all the windows to lessen her lingering aroma, it didn’t seem to help. In fact, he could have sworn that is was stronger now than it was before.
Luke came out of the kitchen where he’d been brooding when another knock sounded on the door. His brother glared at him as he went to answer it, but Damian wasn’t in the mood to glare back. He just shrugged his shoulders as if he didn’t have a care in the world.
“Melissa?” Luke said when he opened the door.
Damian’s first instinct was to run to the door and hug their mate, but he was still feeling too hurt that she had left, so he stayed seated.
“Can I come in?” Melissa asked.
Damian couldn’t see Luke or her, but he suspected that Luke nodded when he didn’t hear his brother’s reply, because the next thing he knew she was standing in their living room looking nervous and sexy as hell.
“Is there something wrong?” Damian asked in cold, emotionless voice “Maybe you have a problem with your car?”