Page 48 of Havoc's Fox
“They’re just dreams, Tempest,” Analise said more confidently.
Tempest shook her head again. “If you don’t give your soul what it needs, it will find a way to get it, or it will slowly wither and die. Luckily for you, it found a way to get what it needs.”
“What does it need?” Analise asked, her voice hushed.
“You know.”
“I don’t want him. I can’t expose myself again. It’s safer to remember that and just keep myself a little bit apart.”
Tempest smiled. “I thought you didn’t live in the past.”
“I don’t, but I don’t forget either.”
“Look, what you do or don’t do, isn’t any of my business. But I can tell you that the unsettled, lost feeling that overwhelms you every time you think you’re finally in control, won’t go away until you finally make a choice and move on. Whatever direction you choose, you have to move on.”
Analise sat thinking about what she’d thought were only dreams. “Sometimes in the dreams I went to him.”
“He’s a part of you, Analise. Going to him is instinctive. But the simple truth is that if you really don’t want him, you can break that bond.”
“I did that years ago.”
“No, you didn’t. You fractured it, but you subconsciously weren’t ready to break it, so you didn’t. When the pain became too great, you stopped just short of completely severing it.”
“We’re still bound?” Analise asked.
“Yeah. I can feel it. It’s tenuous, but it’s there.”
Analise sighed. “I thought it was broken. I’m not sure I can do this.”
“Do what?”
“Any of it. Completely severing the bond. Being with him. Walking away from him. Seeing him every single damn time I want to spend time with my mom and dad. I just can’t. I don’t want any of it! I shouldn’t have to deal with this! I didn’t do anything wrong!”
Tempest extended her hand. “Can I hold your hand for a moment? And you don’t have to say yes just because I’m Brandt’s mate.”
Analise smiled, knowing that Tempest read her thoughts. She had indeed been wondering what Tempest would say if she refused. Analise placed her hand in Tempest’s, slowly, like she thought the contact might burn her or something.
Tempest looked into Analise’s eyes as she held her hand, looking into her soul, her heart. Finally, Tempest canted her head. “You decided a long time ago that you’d never forgive him. Never trust him. Never give him another chance. You’re still punishing him.”
“But I’m not. I no longer care enough to punish him. I’m just protecting me. I mean, I did punish him, and he deserved it, but I don’t anymore. I just want no part of him.”
“Yet you can’t let go either.”
Analise glared at Tempest, pulling her hand back.
“Do you think he’d make the same mistakes?” Tempest asked.
“Do you think he’d make the same mistakes?” Analise countered.
“I don’t know. I don’t know him well. But you do.”
“I don’t know him well. All I know is the boy I used to love. He’s not that boy anymore.”
“No, he’s not. He’s a man with different points of view, different values, a different life and more than a fair dose of life experience behind him.”
“I’ve spent so long working at keeping him separate from me, in all ways, that I’m not sure I can ever see him any other way than that boy.”
“Seems simple enough to me. Forgive the boy or write him off, or both. But maybe take the time to give the man a chance to prove himself. The thing is, the man you’re holding at arms’ length, isn’t the boy who betrayed you all those years ago. Fate really did a number on the two of you.”