Zara’s POV
Mate.
The word struck me like a freight train.
I stared at Gideon’s neck where it disappeared into the collar of his shirt. There was no mark there, not that I could see. But maybe it was hidden.
So it was Avery he’d been looking for all along. And now he knew.
Had they mated?
If they had, then this was even worse than I thought. A mated male would stop at nothing to protect his lover. Gideon might find Avery quicker than we anticipated.
It would ruin everything for me. Everything I had worked so carefully to build.
My castle would crumble before the concrete had set.
Gideon strode away, leaving me standing there with the random necklace I’d found sitting at the bottom of my jewelry box. I had hoped to convince him that it was hers, thus getting him to promise to give t
