The Rejected True Heiress (Liora and Callum) novel Chapter 508

“When you were in that ring,” he said, wrapping his arm firmly around my shoulders, “and I saw Daisy take you down…” His throat bobbed. “I’ve never been more scared in my life, Liora. And in that moment, all I could think about was how much I loved you, and how I wish I could take it all back.”

I swallowed hard. The knot in my throat only got bigger, tasting of salt and blood and pain, like a shard of glass had gotten stuck there.

“When I broke up with you,” Callum said, “I was so… I was so angry. Angry that you wouldn’t run away with me, because I had done it with my family to be with you, and I thought it should have been an easy decision for you. And I was angry that you took the word of a woman you barely knew over mine.” He looked down at me. Met my gaze. “But it wasn’t fair of me. I know that now. And I regret it every day.”

I held his gaze for a moment, just a moment, before I had to look away to keep fresh tears from spilling over.

“If I could have run away with you,” I murmured, “I would have. I really would have, Callum. But I couldn’t just… abandon everything. The kingdom relies on me. My family needs me. I couldn’t…”

“I know that now.” His hand squeezed my shoulders, tugging me a little closer. My cheek met his chest, and I let it stay there, listening to the sound of his heartbeat thrumming steadily against the inside of his ribs. “I’m sorry, Liora. I should have stuck by your side no matter what. But I was selfish, and I guess I’d gotten so used to the wolfless girl I fell in love with that it was too easy at times to forget that you had been a princess all along.”

I shut my eyes as his arms encircled me, breathing in his scent. It was familiar and warm, and in that moment, all of the hurt and anger I’d felt suddenly faded like morning mist in the sunlight. I buried my face in his chest and wrapped my arms around his torso, letting him hold me tight, perhaps tighter than ever before.

“Please don’t leave me ever again,” I whispered. “If you try, I’ll… I’ll make you stay. I won’t let you walk away again, even if it means locking you in the dungeons forever.”

Zane emerged from the woods and froze upon seeing us tangled together. Several emotions flickered across his face in the span of a moment: grief, joy, sadness, relief. And there, at the edges of it, that ghost of a grin that was just barely there, still too far away to be real, but just enough to know that it hadn’t gone away entirely.

“Should I give you two some space, or…?” He jabbed his thumb back over his shoulder the way he had come.

I shook my head, pulling back, stepping out of Callum’s embrace.

“We should probably get moving,” I said. “We have a Delta to save.”