Chapter 5

I'd had enough. I slapped him.

"I don't stomach cheating males. You betrayed me. You got another woman pregnant."

"You're filthy."

Damon cracked. He shouted, shaking his head.

"I had Celeste end the pregnancy. I cut her off. I won't do it again. Give me another chance. Let me make it right."

I pulled my hand back, cold. As I turned to leave — "Damon. I don't love you anymore. Whether you believe it or not, you're not in my future."

The light went out of Damon's eyes. His legs almost gave out.

His eyes went red. He broke. He cried out loud.

"You're lying. You can't be over me."

"Look me in the eye and say it. Say you don't love me."

Damon gripped my arm hard. I lifted my head and met his eyes straight on.

"Yes. I don't love you. Not at all."

"Would you let go of me now?"

This time, Damon's hand slowly loosened. The tears came down like a broken thread.

"The day you left, a piece of me died. I looked for you everywhere. I wasn't going to stop until I found you or died first. I caught your name on a Medical Aid roster. I followed them through every mountain to get here. And you don't want me."

"Aria. I'll give you time."

Damon wiped his face and stumbled out, almost falling more than once.

After that, Damon didn't leave. He took the cabin next to mine.

He didn't push at me. He just watched from a distance. I pretended I didn't see him. Whatever he tried, I wouldn't give him a look. He couldn't reach the part of me that used to love him.

He kept lying to himself anyway.

Then an old packmate of mine, Callum, came by for a follow-up check. We were laughing over old memories when Damon decided I'd started something new.

He came in hot, hand raised, going for Callum. I blocked him.

"Damon. If you want to lose it, lose it outside. Stop interfering with my patients."

Callum stood up, awkward, said goodbye, and left.

Once he was gone, I shoved Damon off me, disgusted. He caught my wrist and looked at me, soft and pleading.

"Aria. You've had a few days to cool off. It's time to come back. Let's go home."

I couldn't help pulling my brow tight. I laughed at him. He actually thought the last three years had just been me giving him the silent treatment?

"Damon. Did anything I said land? We're severed. I don't love you. Can you go? Is that so hard?"

He'd pushed me past laughing.

"I will never forget you stripping in front of me and rolling around with Celeste."

"I will never forget that the cold medicine you asked me to bring you was condoms. That the fireworks you set off at my birthday spelled her name."

"I don't know how thick your skin is, that you can stand there and ask me to come home with you. You wanted the thrill. Now pay for it."

Every sentence I said sank into Damon like a silver blade, then twisted.

He could barely breathe.

I held myself back. My hand was almost in the air when Celeste walked in.

Damon had said he'd cut her down. Another lie. She was perfectly fine.

She looked the same as three years ago. Nothing touched her.

"Touch Damon and I'll end you. You look half ruined anyway."

Celeste wore all her old cruelty on her face when she spoke to me. The second she crossed in front of Damon, it switched to sweet.

"The whole mess came at once. Should I shut the door and take care of both of you?"

Celeste had come onto my ground to push me. I wasn't holding back. I'd have her crawling out.

"Damon. Hear that? She just called you and me dogs. Let me teach her some manners for you."

Celeste stopped laughing. The cruelty came back, and she swung at me — but she didn't get to.

Crack.

"Shut your mouth. She's right to call you a dog. You were my dog from the start. You thought you could take your Luna's place."

"I warned you. Never come near me again. If your ears don't work, I don't mind cutting them off."

Celeste held her red cheek. She stared at Damon in shock. He was looking at her like he hated her.

He'd never raised a hand against her before. Never raised his voice. Now, for Aria, he did it without hesitation.

"Aria, don't listen to her. I won't let her hurt you."

"I cut her off three years ago. I swear. I'm not lying."

Damon turned to me, frantic, trying to explain. I wasn't interested.

My face stayed flat as I told them both, "Get out. Don't come back to the Hollow. We have nothing to say. Leave now."

Damon's face went white. His brow pulled tight in a kind of refusal.

Celeste took Damon's coldness and put it on me. She grabbed a wooden chair off the floor and hurled it at me.

Damon was standing right next to me. I pushed him away and dodged with him.

"Aria Hayes. Die. Just die already."

Celeste shrieked it. Then she grabbed a glass jar from a shelf and threw that too.

I'd had enough. After the second dodge, I ran at her and drove my foot into her body.