Chasing His Kickass Luna Back Chapter 338

Abby

“You need to bring this with you.”

Looking at the strange little vial in Karl’s hand, my eyebrows knit together of their own accord.

“What… What’s that?” I ask, although I think I already know the answer.

Karl looks at me for a long time, as though he’s struggling to find the right words. Finally, he just holds the vial out to me. “You have to keep taking it every day,” he says softly. “Otherwise it won’t work.”

With trembling hands, I reach out and take the vial. It’s surprisingly cool in my palm even though he’s been holding it.

I can feel my heart physically sink as I take the vial from him and begin inspecting the familiar contents inside. When I finally spot the intricate “A” etched into the glass, a heavy ball of dread drifts through me like a heavy stone sinking to the bottom of a river.

Recognition washes over me, although it was already there before. I know this vial. This… potion.

“This is from Dr. Armitage’s fertility treatments, isn’t it?” I whisper, bewilderment and hurt fracturing my core as I shakily lift my gaze to meet Karl’s.

“Yes,” he says softly. “It is.”

“You kept pursuing his treatments behind my back?” I quiver. “After I told you that I didn’t want to do it?”

Karl pauses for a moment, then takes in a deep, shuddering breath before he responds. “Yes,” he admits. “I’ve been putting it in your coffee for a few weeks now. A few drops a day.”

As he speaks, I feel like the world is tilting beneath my feet. “I… I can’t believe you,” I whimper, taking a few steps backwards. “After everything… After you claimed to have changed…”

Karl reaches for me pleadingly. “Abby please, just let me explain everything. It’s not as bad as you think—”

I jerk violently out of his reach, almost as though I’ve been physically scalded by his touch. “What’s there to explain?” I hiss. Hot tears blur my eyes as I struggle to reconcile this fresh wound, ripping open old scars. “You completely betrayed me. I thought you were different now, but it turns out you’re just the same old liar you always were.”

Karl’s face contorts in pain at my words, regret written clearly across his striking features. Yet he pushes on stubbornly. “I only secured more treatments because all evidence shows they pose no real risks! While helping fertility—”

“No risks?” I spit bitterly. “It’s an experimental treatment made up by some quack ‘doctor’, Karl. And even if there were no risks, I told you that I didn’t want to do it. It was my decision to make, not yours.”

Karl drags a hand roughly through his hair. “Listen, I know that you didn’t want to try it, but it’s been weeks now and it hasn’t affected you negatively,” he defends himself, although both of us know it’s futile. “Hell, Abby, you’ve been insatiable. It’s a sign that the treatment is working.”

My throat burns like white hot coals as Karl speaks. So that means that all of the times we’ve made love recently… all of the unstoppable sex… it was all just a result of a treatment that I never consented to.

Karl takes a step forward in an attempt to close the distance between us. “Look, Abby, I’m sorry,” he says quietly. “But I was only trying to help you. I just wanted to fulfill my promise, to give you the baby you’ve always wanted. You just need to keep taking it while you’re gone, and it’ll work soon. I promise.”

His faltering defense snaps my last frayed tether of reason. With an inarticulate cry I seize the vial and hurl it violently against the nearest wall. The glass explodes in a shining spray across the floorboards, the glimmering liquid within pooling and dripping.

“Get out!” I scream raggedly, my vision hazy with tears. I double over, feeling as though a knife has been twisted ruthlessly in my heart. “You arrogant bastard! And to think I actually believed you had changed…”

For once, Karl seems stunned speechless by my reaction. I sense him hovering uncertainly behind me. Eventually he tries again, his voice cracking with remorse. “Can’t you understand that I only wanted to help you?” he asks. “I never meant to hurt you, Abby.”

I whip around, fresh fury blazing through my lingering tears. “But you did hurt me, Karl! You broke my trust, yet again! Just when I was really starting to believe that once, just once, you were going to treat me like an equal! Like my opinions, my thoughts, my desires, all mattered!”

Each scathing word lands like a blow as Karl flinches, but I don’t stop. I take a step forward, my hands clenched into hard fists at my sides, my teeth grit.

“But clearly you haven’t changed one damned bit! You’re still the same manipulative, arrogant bastard who always thinks he knows my needs better than me!”

As I wail, I come so close to Karl that I could touch him. God, I even want to hit him; but I don’t. I can’t. I could never hurt him, not even after he’s broken my heart once again.

Instead, a fresh wave of tears stings my eyes, and I whirl away from him, leaning against the dresser with my hands gripping the wood so tightly my knuckles are pure white.

“Abby—”

“We're done here,” I interrupt before he can finish. “Just—just go. And don’t you dare come back again.”

There’s a long, heavy silence behind me. I can feel Karl staring at the back of my head in conjunction with the sensation of my wolf roiling inside of me, but I won’t go back on what I said. He broke my trust. He broke me.

Instead of talking to me, he just proved his immaturity once again and made a life-changing decision without me; hell, he could have even withered my dying ovaries even more.

And I can’t bear to even look at him.

Behind me, Karl finally begins to gather his scattered garments silently. I watch indirectly through the mirror on the wall, my tear-blurred eyes making his form fuzzy.

Once he’s finished, he pauses fully dressed in the bedroom doorway. We exchange one final grief-stricken look across the space between us. My wolf pushes me to go to him, but I can’t. I won’t.

And Karl does that thing again where he opens his mouth as if to speak, but then can’t find the words and closes it again. Then, his expression shutters completely. Without another word he strides away down the hall for the last time.

The sound of the front door slamming flips a switch inside of me.

Now that I’m alone, really alone, a single choked sob escapes before wave after wave crashes over me. I collapse onto the bed, anguished cries wracking my frame at the realization that I’ve lost my mate all over again.

This time for good, destroyed by his own callous arrogance.

Eventually, however, no more tears will come, leaving me hollowed out and exhausted amidst the wreckage of my broken dreams for the future.

Even the tantalizing prospect of catering for royalty can’t pierce the desolate void that’s blooming in my chest.