She stopped and shook her head. “You had no idea what it was like. To have people laugh at you. To point. To be afraid to go to my locker for what I might find. You think I found it funny what you did? How humiliated I was.” Tears filled her eyes, and he hated seeing them.

“I … I don’t know what to say.”

“That’s just it, Lucas, there is nothing to say about this. You want me to forgive you so we can, what? Start mating? Having a family.” She took a step toward him, closing the distance between them. This close, he felt the pain in his core. “Three years ago, before the mating, that very fucking day, you couldn’t even stand to be near me. You despised me and made sure the entire cafeteria heard it. That night, we both turned, and you think one little action of oops, sorry, didn’t know you were my mate is going to cut it.”

She shook her head. “Believe it or not, I’m actually trying.” She wrapped her arms around herself and stepped back. “I’m going to bed.”

“I lied that day,” Lucas said.

“What?”

“That day, I remember it. I think about it constantly. You were wearing a dress, very similar to the one you’re wearing now. I saw you come into school. I was struck dumb by what I saw.”

He ran a hand down his face. The memory was so vivid in his mind. “My friends were talking shit, but I watched you. You had your hair tied back at the nape of your neck. Some nerd approached you and you laughed. You wore a pair of boots because you couldn’t stand to wear heels, unlike so many other girls. You stood out and you looked … I hated how much I wanted you. At that moment, I wanted you all to myself. All morning, you walked around school, completely oblivious to me. I watched you and you didn’t even know. Yeah, I was an asshole because I was the most popular guy in school, but I fucking wanted you, and still, you didn’t see me.”

He started to laugh. “By the time lunch came, I was angry, but I needed … fuck, I don’t know what I needed, but I knew I wanted something, and that was you. To feel you against me, to know what it was like to have you in my arms.” He closed the distance between them. There shouldn’t be any space now.

Mabel tilted her head back. Even changed, she was so much smaller than him.