Chapter 101

Chapter 101
Amerald
He watched as he put Lucy on his bike for the first time. He froze the scene so he could walk around the couple on the bike. He reached out to touch her face.
“Oh, Lucy. I wish I could go back to this moment and just take you away, keep you with me,” he murmured sadly as he stroked her hair back.
He tried again to reach for Saber, who stubbornly held himself back. He let the dream unfreeze and watched himself drive over making love to her for the first time. Longing filled him even more. A hand touched his shoulder and he jumped, startled. He looked over his shoulder and sighed when Kalani stood there.
“If you love her so much, then why do you want to make it look like you rejected her? She’s hurting, Amerald. This isn’t fair to either of you. Just go tell her that you love her and want to be with her.”
The scene changed again to when Lucy showed up in the clearing and manhandled Doris with her magic. He watched for a moment before looking at Kalani.
“I can’t. It would be even more unfair to her.”
“Why do you say that? She loves you and wants to be with you.”
“I just do,” he snapped, shrugging her off.
“There has to be a reason. What happened? It’s obvious how much you love her.”
He glared at her for a moment before the scene around them blurred as he focused on the moment she wanted to see. He stopped on one where he sat at the bar, holding a tumbler of whiskey in his hands. Moments after he stopped, Marybell sat next to him. He didn’t even look at her as he drank his whiskey.
“What do you want?” he growled.
“I’ve been looking for you.”
“Why?”
“I wanted to talk to you.”
“About what? Can you just spit it out, so I can get back to destroying my liver?”
She hesitated. “I was Lucy’s best friend for years and-”
He laughed coldly. “Yeah. ‘Best friend’. If I had a best friend like you, I would probably be dead.”
She groaned. “I know I messed up. I regret hurting her, especially with Josh. I knew better. I knew how she felt about him. I knew how he felt about her. There is not a mate pair in the world better for each other than them.They grew up loving each other.”
He finally turned his head to glare at her. “Heard. Leave.”
“I’m not trying to hurt you. I just want you to be aware. He was everything she wanted, even before she realized they were mates.”
He ordered another drink and downed it before replying. “I don’t know why you are telling me this. I left. She doesn’t have to worry about me.” He paused for a second before pinning her with a deadly glare. “Did Lucy send you to tell me off?”
“No. I just wanted to tell you because I hurt her mate bond. I don’t want anybody to ever do that again to her and you pose the biggest risk to her mate bond. You saw what it did to her the first time around.”
Saber growled at her. “She is mine! I want her! Who in the fuck do you think you are to tell me I can’t have my mate? She marked me. I marked her. We’re mates.”
Marybell got up and slapped something down on the bar in front of him with her hand still covering it. “You may love her, cat, but you will kill her if she has to choose. You walked away from her and made it easy for her. I know it’s hard but she is the greatest person I have ever met and I have been alive for a very long time. Please, stay away from her for her sake. Since you say she’s your mate, then you must love her. Love her enough to let her go and be happy.”
She walked away and he picked up the small, gold-embroidered turquoise paper. He picked it up.
‘Please Join Us in Celebrating the Marriage of
Joshua Morris and Lucianna Lincoln
Friday, May 9th
At Deegan Castle
He ran his finger over the words as tears rolled down his face. Amerald lowered his head, mirroring the dream Amerald’s posture.
“I was thinking about how right Marybell was. I couldn’t interfere with their bond. I refused to be the one that hurt her like that again.” His hand fisted at his side. “I held her for so many nights while she cried. I saw the sadness in her eyes. I saw the defeat, the guilt and the need for him, too. When I left Deegan, I saw the panic. I don’t ever want to see that look in her eyes again.”
“I saw all of that and more when we brought her back from seeing you Wednesday night. She is devastated. She is confused.”
He stuck his hands in his pockets. “What does everybody want from me, Queen Kalani? I can’t give her what she wants. It may work for a week or a few months but it will fail. He doesn’t want me around.”
“He does. He wants to make her happy, don’t you?”
She faded out of sight and he turned back to the bar, where the dream him still sat crying. He sighed. Of course, he wanted to make her happy and that was why he had to stay away from her. He reached for Saber again and was immediately shoved back. He cursed to himself and slowly sank down to lean back against the bar while he watched himself down tumbler after tumbler of whiskey as he continued to cry. He sighed and leaned his head back.
“After they are done with me, we’ll leave and we won’t come back. I promise. We won’t have to ever see her with him again.” He wiped a tear off his own cheek. “I am so sorry for everything, Saber. Please, forgive me. I won’t survive without you. I need you. Please, come back to me. Please.”