"Yes," I answered, keeping the fear out of my voice. I didn't want to allow him to see how scared I truly was. Knowing I was doing the right thing didn't turn me into a heroine.
"Why would you do that?" he asked. It was like he was piecing everything together to form the bigger picture.
"Because if I give myself to the Keepers, then there will be no reason to attack my pack."
I felt the heat of his gaze but ignored it. I didn't expect him to understand.
"This will destroy him," he said. The guilt I had been struggling with rose to the surface again. He was right but it didn't matter. My mate's life and the lives of my pack members depended on this.
If I backed out in a moment of weakness they would die trying to protect me. I couldn't allow that; it wasn't fair. But I had learned early on that life wasn't fair. Being born half-werewolf and half-Keeper, nothing I had experienced had been fair or my fault.
"I'm doing this because I love him," I explained, even though there didn't seem to be any point.
"You are weak," he said, and I frowned as my hands tightened on the wheel. "You allow your emotions to dictate your actions."
"Think what you want, I don't care." I was finished with our conversation.
He was the enemy. As soon as we got to the Keepers, he would reveal to them what I was and my fate would be sealed.
The only thing I could hold on to was the fact I had kept Kyle safe. He would mourn my loss and it would be difficult for him, but I hoped one day he might be able to find someone else to share in his life. The thought hurt but I couldn't allow myself to be selfish.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Kyle
I woke up with a start. The room was dark. The first thing I did was reach beside me but the empty space I found there made me sit up. The sheet was still warm. I stood up and flipped on the bedroom light.
She was gone. I frowned, not allowing the fear that she would leave me again to seep into my thoughts. I rushed into the bathroom but it was empty.
Where was she?
With every moment my heart began to pound, and it was impossible to fight the rising fear. I put my hand to my chest to calm myself down, needing a calm head to figure out what was going on and where my mate was.
Crystal?I asked through our mind-link, hoping she would answer, but there was no response. That set my fear up a notch and I could feel the panic starting to set in.She wouldn't, I told myself. She had promised she wouldn't run again.
But she wasn't here.
This couldn't be happening again. I began to think, feeling like I was spiraling out of control back into the nightmare I had been living before I found her. I couldn't go through that again. My sanity wouldn't allow it.
Think, I insisted, trying to keep a hold on myself. Where could she have gone? She couldn't have disappeared into thin air, so she had to be somewhere. I inhaled a deep breath and released it, hoping it would help my spiraling emotions.
I put a hand to my head as I began to contemplate where she could have gone. I thought back to what we had talked about before. I had made my decision to kill Flynn to keep her safe.
Flynn. In that moment I knew there was something horribly wrong. My mind couldn't contemplate the thought that struck me. She wouldn't have; I refused to believe it. She wouldn't betray me like this.
I got dressed in a rush before I dashed from the room. I could have called to the guards to find out but fear stopped me. There were only minutes before I made it down into the basement of the house, still buttoning up my shirt.
Momentarily I stopped when I saw the guard lying sprawled in the passageway.
No, no, my mind yelled as I rushed to the guard and put my hand to his neck. I felt for a pulse. There was one but he was still out cold. The cell door was open and when I stepped inside, it confirmed my worst fear.
Flynn was gone.
James, I yelled through the mind-link.
What's wrong?he answered, sounding like I had just woken him up.
Flynn's gone, I admitted with a heavy heart, knowing that it had been Crystal.
