?Chapter 323:

    “Exin?” she snapped, her voice rising as she uncrossed her arms and stepped forward. “You want to exin now? After months of lying to me? After I had to find out from him?” She pointed back toward the house, her hand trembling. “You don’t get to fucking exin, Ryder. Not anymore.”

    I opened my mouth, but the words caught in my throat.

    “You think saying ‘I was trying to protect you’ makes it better?” she continued, her voice shaking. “It doesn’t. It just makes it worse. Because you didn’t trust me. You didn’t believe in me enough to let me in.”

    “I do trust you,” I said quickly, taking another step toward her. “I just… I didn’t want you to get hurt—”

    “Well, congrattions,” she interrupted, herugh bitter and hollow. “You failed. Because I’m fucking hurt, Ryder. I’m so hurt I can’t even look at you without feeling like I’m going to fall apart.”

    Her words were knives, each one cutting deeper than thest.

    “I love you,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper. “I love you, Jasmine. Please. Don’t leave.”

    Her eyes misted over, but she quickly blinked the tears away, her jaw tightening. “Love isn’t enough, Ryder. Not when there’s no trust.”

    “Jasmine,” I started, but Enzo stepped between us, his hand on her arm as if to shield her from me.

    “Don’t,” Enzo said, his voice cold. “Ryder, you im you love me? You don’t lie to the one you love. You don’t deceive the one you love. That’s not love. You’re just like them…” I watched the hurt in her eyes, and by them, I knew what she meant.

    “You’ve said enough,” Enzo said firmly, his gaze locking onto mine with a quiet fury. “She’s leaving. Let her go.”

    My wolf howled, wing at me, desperate to stop her. But Jasmine didn’t look back.

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    She climbed into the car, and this time, when Enzo got behind the wheel, I didn’t stop him.

    The car disappeared down the road, and with it, thest shred of hope I had left.

    I stood there in the middle of the road, the silence pressing down on me like a fucking weight, until the scent of her was gone. Until all that was left was the emptiness.

    Wreckage of my choices and the crushing realization that I’d just lost the one thing I couldn’t live without.

    Ryder’s POV

    She left me.

    She fucking left.

    The sound of the car’s tires fading into the distance was still echoing in my ears, but it wasn’t the worst part. No, the worst part was the hollow ache in my chest. Like a fucking ck hole was swallowing me from the inside out.

    “Gone,” I whispered, the word tasting like ash on my tongue.

    Ace was howling in my head, pacing, snarling, his rage barely contained. Go after her, he growled, his voice sharp and desperate. Chase her. Stop her. Bring her back where she belongs.

    But I couldn’t.

    I couldn’t fucking do that.

    “She needed space,” I muttered, the words sounding hollow even to me. But it didn’t matter. Space was what she wanted, and forcing her back would only shatter whatever fragile threads were left between us.

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