My Cheating Mate (Emma and Jeremy) novel Chapter 16

Chapter 16

+25 BONUS

He hissed when I pressed

the first wound but didn’t pull away. I worked methodically, cleaning each injury with careful precision while trying to ignore how familiar this felt–touching him, caring for him, being close enough to smell his pine and

earth scent.

The scent that used to make me feel safe. Now just made me angry.

“Emma,” he said quietly after several minutes of silence, “About those rogues-

“You think Vanessa sent them.”

“I do. She was furious when I told her I wasn’t going to immediately reject you. And she has the money and connections to hire rogues.”

I pressed the antiseptic–soaked cloth against a particularly deep gash, maybe harder than necessary. He grunted in pain but didn‘: complain.

“So your mistress tried to have me killed because you wouldn’t reject me fast enough.” I laughed bitterly. “That’s quite the love story you two have.”

“She’s not my-” He stopped. “I ended things with her. After you left. I realized

“Realized what?” I interrupted, my hands stilling. “That cheating on your mate was wrong? That planning to use me as a broodmare was fucked up? Or did you just realize you got caught and needed to do damage control?”

“All of it,” he said quietly. “I realized all of it. Emma, I was wrong. About everything. I treated you terribly, and I-”

“Stop.” I pulled away, the first aid supplies forgotten. “Don’t do this. Don’t try to apologize or explain or make me feel sorry for you.”

“I’m not trying to make you feel sorry for me. I’m trying to tell you the truth.”

“The truth?” I laughed again, the sound harsh even to my own ears. “The truth is that you never loved me. You said it yourself- the mate bond chose me, not you. The truth is that you spent six months fucking Vanessa while making me feel crazy for being uncomfortable with your ‘friendship.‘ The truth is that you planned to get me pregnant and then throw me away like garbage.”

“I know.” His voice was barely a whisper. “I know all of that, and I know I don’t deserve your forgiveness. But Emma, when I saw those rogues coming after you, when I thought I might lose you-

“You already lost me.” I stood up, needing distance. “The second you touched her, you lost me. The mate bond might keep us connected, but that doesn’t mean we’re together. It doesn’t mean I’m yours.”

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“I know that too.” He looked up at me, and there was something in his eyes I’d never seen before. Genuine remorse, maybe. Or a really good performance of it. “But I need you to understand something. When we were fighting those rogues together, when we moved as one–that’s what we could have been. What we should have been. And I threw it away because I was selfish and stupid and too blind to see what I had.”

My chest tightened. Because he was right. For those few minutes during the fight, we’d been perfect partners. Synchronized. United. Everything mates were supposed to be.

And it had felt good. Natural. Right.

Which made his betrayal hurt even more.

“You need to finish bandaging those wounds,” I said, retreating toward the door. “And then you need to leave. Like you promised.”

“Emma”

“Dawn breaks in two hours, Jeremy. I’m holding you to our deal.”

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