Saving Briar

Theon

“I fucked up. And I’m not going to ask you to forgive me, Briar, because I don’t deserve your forgiveness. But I want you to know that for the rest of my life, with every breath that I take, I will regret that you were hurt because of me.” Theon had knelt down on the ground a few feet away from where Harlow was holding Briar in her arms. He could hear Briar’s heart pounding in her chest and he hated that she was terrified simply because he had walked into the room.

“I’m sorry, Briar. I’m sorry that I wasn’t strong enough to be the mate that you deserved. I’m sorry that I wasn’t a better Alpha. You’ve suffered for more than just the past week because of me. I was worried about all the wrong things. But I’m starting to realize how much I’ve screwed up. And I came here to make it right.”

“We can’t be together.” Briar was still trembling but she managed to get the words out, and Theon felt his respect for the little She-Wolf grow. He knew it must have taken her a great deal of strength to express what she was feeling, since she was obviously scared out of her mind that he had come to finish the job that had been started on that day when she’d recognized him as her mate.

“I know. Some things that are broken aren’t able to be mended. But Briar, you deserve to be free.” He watched as her dark eyes widened at his words. “I want you to know that I didn’t know it would hurt you when I was with someone else. That’s not an excuse, and I know it’s not even the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what I’ve done to you. But I needed you to know that I wasn’t hurting you that way on purpose.I was half out of my mind after the way I screwed up, but if I’d known that I was still hurting you I would have stopped and set out to find you sooner.”

Briar nodded numbly, unable to find any words to express the tumult of emotions that were pressing down on her from every direction.

“I think that we both know that we need to sever the mate bond.” Theon stayed on his knees in front of the two women, hardly able to meet their eyes.

“Yes.” Briar’s voice was barely more than a whisper. “Let’s get this over with.”

A small part of Theon was surprised that her words didn’t hurt more than they did. He felt a pain in his chest and sadness as the mate bond tugged at him, but even his wolf stayed silent and didn’t urge him to try to change her mind. The damage that he had done to the bond with his actions in the minutes and hours after he’d found out that she was supposed to be his, had obviously damaged whatever it was that had been destined to be between them.

“I, Briar, reject you, Alpha Theon, as my mate.” Her voice was so soft that Theon barely heard them, but he felt as if something between them had snapped in two and he fell backwards, so that instead of leaning forwards he was sitting flat on the floor. It hurt so much more than he’d imagined that it would, and he mumbled a rejection of his own, although through the haze of pain that surged outward from his chest, he imagined that it wasn’t necessary. Whatever had been between them was gone.

It only took one side of a pair to reject the mate bond, destroying it forever. Briar had done that with her soft words, not looking at him while she spoke.

“Caelan? Can you please take him?” Briar’s voice was still quiet, but a small part of Theon was surprised that she could speak at all. He could hardly move, much less speak.

He felt strong arms picking him up under his arms, and he tried to open his mouth to say something, but excruciating pain wracked his body and he had to focus all his energy on staying upright, rather than forming words. A small part of his mind tried to hold on to the other thing that he needed to do while he was in the room. He needed to tell Briar that Torin was there and that he loved her. He felt, quite clearly, that it was the least that he could do, after everything that he had done and also everything that he had allowed to happen, while standing by without saying a word.

The hulking giant who had a hold of him hauled him into the hallway and in a matter of moments he found himself inside an elevator with the man.

“I don’t know how your Goddess mismatched her with you.” The man snarled as the elevator began to move downwards. If Theon had had the ability to care about what happened to him in that moment he would have been afraid, he was certain that the man who was hauling him around as if he weighed nothing at all was a dragon shifter, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care. “And I’m tempted as I’ve ever been to beat the life out of you for what I know you put her through. But you had her and you lost her and I can’t help but think, having spent some time with Briar, that your loss is her gain. She’s better off away from you and that toxic waste that you call a pack.”

As the giant’s tirade ended the doors opened, Caelan tossed him easily out of the elevator before leaning forward and pressing to let the doors close without waiting to see if Theon was capable of getting up on his own. As it was, it took him several long minutes for Theon to push himself up onto his feet.

The world seemed to spin and fade around him, and everything sounded far away and muffled, but Theon stumbled forward, intent on finding his way back to the bar so that he could tell the others that they still needed to find a way for Torin to tell Briar that he was there and that he needed to see her before she did something that she couldn’t take back.

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Torin

Oaklyn slid back into the both next to Ted and drew in a long, slow breath, through her nose. Her expression was blank and Torin felt his heart speed up as he waited to hear whatever it was that his long time friend had to say.

“Where’s Theon?” Ted asked the question before it had even occurred to Torin that the other man wasn’t there. He was so focused on finding out where Briar was and if they could see her that he hadn’t even noticed that the Wolf-Shifter wasn’t with Oaklyn.

“He managed to convince Mr. Rose to let one of his guards take him to see Briar. He promised to reject her and Mr. Rose jumped at the chance. I think he knew that having a werewolf with a mate who was sleeping with other people would seriously mess with how many days a month she could work. It’s not usually a problem since most of the women who come here have never met their mates, or have already been rejected or done the rejecting.” Oaklyn shrugged, sliding close to Ted and resting her head on his shoulder for a moment. “We should probably wait here. I’m sure Theon will come find us once he’s seen Briar.”

Torin wanted to stand up and demand to be taken to see her too, but he knew it wouldn’t do any good and would only get him thrown out of the hotel altogether. He felt his beast surge towards the surface and pushed the brute down. His beast was ready to tear the place apart, board by board, but that wouldn’t help Briar either. This place was crawling with dragon shifters. He’d never get to her in time.

“I did manage to do one thing after Theon left. And I’m hoping you’ll be pleased, Torin.”

Torin lifted his eyes and stared at Oaklyn, but didn’t speak. He couldn’t imagine anything that she could tell him, short of the room number that Briar was staying in, that would make him feel better. When he didn’t speak she continued.

“I got Mr. Rose to allow you to bid tonight at the auction. He expects Briar to fetch a pretty penny. It won’t buy her freedom. I did gather that she’s already signed the contract, and I got him to admit that it isn’t just legally binding. He had a witch put a spell on it that makes it magically binding too. Briar can’t break it without serious consequences. Although he didn’t tell me what those consequences were.”

A growl escaped from between Torin’s lips as he fought to control the rage building in his chest.

He would pay every penny he had to buy Briar’s freedom. He wasn’t about to accept the fact that she’d signed away the next year of her life to work in a brothel.

“She did it to care for her sister and mother.” Oaklyn had lowered her voice and looked like she wanted to reach out to attempt to comfort Torin, but the look in his eyes stopped her.

“I don’t care why she did it. I’m going to find a way to stop it. Even if it kills me, I’m going to save her from this thing that she believes she has to do. I promised to protect her and I’ve done nothing but fuck that up since the moment I decided to push her away. I won’t make the same mistake twice.”