Azriel's POV
Azriel howled. There was no way to describe the aching that set into his bones but pure agony - as though he felt his heart being ripped from his chest but wasn't granted the bliss of sweet death to cure him.
Four days. Four fucking days he waited.
Idiot. He was an idiot for not realising. For not having enough courage to knock, check she was okay. For being stuck so much in his stubbornness he forgot that not only was she his mate, but he was hers. It was his innate duty to protect her - to love her, even if she did not love him, did not choose him.
His whole problem was he loved her too much, chose her over anything else. And he was scared, again. Always scared. Scared she would reject him, or leave him, or choose someone else over him.
So instead of preventing it - of talking to her and loving her regardless, he let that fear win.
He howled again as he ripped her room apart to find any remnant of her.
His pain had doubled now.
He realised his mistake. That fear he was so afraid of - that rejection he wished to avoid at every cost, had cost him her.
Because he had done just that to Celeste.
Without even a word, he had chosen not to fight for her. He had chosen to leave, so she would leave him; he had chosen to try to forget, so should would forget him.
But he never did. How could he forget - the most beautiful woman, the only woman he had ever truly loved, his mate.
Instead of forgetting her, he forgot to love her.
A fool. He was a fool, and his mate was gone because of it.
But he wasn't going to make the same mistake twice.
Not with his mate.
And certainly not with Celeste.
YOU ARE READING
A Court of Light and Fire (ACOTAR)
FanfictionInstagram @charlotte_romeo_ ~~~~~ Celeste Archeron is forced into a body of the Cauldron's choosing, a life she never dreamed of living and world she never imagined calling her own. As the fourth and youngest Archeron sister, she knows of her family...
