The two men guarding our side of the bridge stand when they see me coming, their hands falling to the daggers at their belts. Daggers that they earned for doing what they had to do. Just as I will earn my place in our village by putting my own selfish desires aside for the greater good.

I do not need a female who weeps at the sight of a flower.

I need  one who stomps them dead beneath her boot as she races toward her prey, killing to provide for her family. To protect.

My mother was like Kerris, a delicate bloom. And she wilted right before my eyes.

My heart grows a little harder with each step I take down the bone-lined path, all the way to the camp. I climb the stairs to my barrel-top and duck beneath the low door. A fire blazes in the stove and a female waits in my bed, her hair as black as midnight and eyes as dark as the shadows surrounding us.

Leah sits up, the sheets falling to her bare waist. She takes one look at me and her eyes narrow. “Where have you been?”

A thousand lies spring to my mind. On a hunt. Checking the outpost. With Maddox and Gryff. Walking the trails. Collecting firewood.

So many lies but only one truth: Cutting out my own heart.

“Everett?”

The voice that calls my name is not the one I long to hear. Am I to exist for the rest of eternity wishing for a different life?

Do not settle for anything less than love.

Will I one day break beneath the weight of this love I carry for another? How am I supposed to do this? How can I move forward when I am so stuck on her?

The answer is so fucking simple.

I cannot.

I collect Leah’s dress from where she draped it over my chair, tossing it onto the bed. “Put this on.”

For once, she listens. Only once she is covered do I drop onto the edge of my mattress.

“What is it?” She gathers her hair into a queue, tying the short strands back from her face.

She is a good female. A strong, faithful female. I should just accept my fate. Learn to live this life spread in front of me. Except…

Forever is a long time for a male to live without a soul.

Even knowing the consequences of my actions, I steel my spine and speak my truth. “I cannot mate with you.” From the moment she asked, I should have known I was not meant to accept. “I want more, Leah.”

Once, I believed I could survive on friendship alone, but it is not enough. Curse me for my desires, but now that I know what it feels like to be utterly captivated, I cannot go back to the way things were.