Chapter 191

Claire's POV Joey took me back to my apartment. After Calvin rejected our mate bond, I felt empty inside. There was a physical pain in my chest that made it hard to breathe. Stella, my wolf, had become unusually quiet. She was hiding somewhere in my mind to heal from the pain. For three days, I lay on the bed like a wooden doll, completely numb to the world around me. For the first time in my life, I felt a crushing sense of hopelessness that I'd never experienced before, no matter what obstacles I'd faced. Before, I had never truly felt Lucius's clear declaration of love. You can't truly mourn what you've never had. But this time was different. I had distinctly felt Lucius's love, his warmth, his protection. I had finally let down all my defenses and chosen to trust him completely. And at the moment when I was most hopeful, when I loved him most deeply, he told me it was all a lie. That kind of pain had shredded all my expectations about love. From now on, I would never believe in lov