Dark Heart Wolf - Haley Weir Page 0,34

from the abyss."

"What happened after the vision?" she asked. Sam heard the confusion as well as the concern in her voice.

"I woke up only yesterday, Mary. Abigail said I collapsed and didn't wake up until a message was delivered by Itsá."

"The message to journey up the mountain?"

"He did not tell me about the journey itself; someone else did. But Itsá told me instructions on what I have to do when I get there."

~*~

The scent of damp wood and soil soaked into his senses. Hawks flew overhead, cawing as they hunted down their meal. Sam felt like he could finally breathe now that he was miles away from anyone but Mary Ann. He tried to behave when he left her, but he failed miserably and felt the need to apologize. He cleared his throat and steered his horse closer. "I'm sorry, Mary," Sam said quietly, trying not to break the tranquil atmosphere.

"About what?"

"I've been drinkin' again," he confessed. "I been drinkin' a lot, and I know I promised you that I would stop."

"I'm sorry too."

"For what?" Sam frowned over at her in confusion. "What could you possibly have to apologize for?"

"I'm sorry you're drinkin' again. Anybody who chooses to drink themselves half to head clearly ain't happy. They're hidin' some pain inside of them. No one wants to feel drunk when they're happy with themself and their life. Simple as that." Mary Ann shrugged her shoulders. "And I'm sorry I was the one that caused you to start drinkin' again."

"Things would have been worse if you had kept the child from me."

"I would never do somethin' like that, Samuel," she breathed upon a sharp exhaled. "Not to you or myself."

Sam chewed the inside of his cheek and wished he had packed a flask to calm his nerves. "Well, the liquor ain't the only thing I have to confess. But it's part of it. You could never understand how upset I am, how terrible I feel."

"What is it?"

He pulled his horse to a stop and reached over for her hand. "I was drunk and reckless. Full as a tick and barely able to keep my head up...and I woke up in a bed that wasn't my own, Mary. I woke up in the brothel. I never intended for another woman to touch me in that way. I promise—”

Mary Ann held up her hand to stay his words and rode ahead of him. In her silence, he felt the weight of his mistakes. Sam didn’t have to hear the sniffles or the winded breaths to know that she was crying. He didn’t have to see her shoulders tremble or her head lower. Mary Ann’s sadness festered in his heart right beside the guilt and the fear that he would lose her forever. Sam only hoped that her forgiving nature hadn’t run dry for him just yet.

He spurred his horse on and caught up to her, reaching out to touch her arm, but Mary Ann flinched away. “What do I have to do to make it up to you?”

“You woke up in the brothel, but you don’t know what happened?” she snapped. “I’m tryin’ to see you for the man I know you can be...you’re makin’ it harder each time you open your mouth. One minute you say you want us to climb this mountain and free you of your burdens so you can love me. In the next, you tell me that you drank yourself unconscious and woke up in another woman’s bed. I’m your mate, Samuel. Don’t that mean somethin’ to you?”

"It didn't in the beginnin'. Not until you gave me hope that it was real. Our marks and the way we bonded the night the witches attacked...I can't deny it no more. You are my mate."

"I'm just not the woman you love." Mary Ann dried her eyes on the poncho. "You don't even know if anythin' happened before you woke up. Did you even ask?"

"No. I just got my boots and ran. It ain't the first time I passed out and woke up with regrets, Mary."

"At the brothel?" she asked with her brow cocked. Sam shook his head, and she scoffed at his answer. "Charlotte's friend Ariel knows we were together, Sam. Half the town knew it. Did it never occur to you that she might have looked after you?"

Now that Mary Ann mentioned it...the woman had resembled Charlotte's charismatic friend. But before Sam could open his mouth to contradict himself, she cut him off. "I'll do this with you, I'll