Free MINE 3 by Kristina Weaver

lay a hand on his shoulder, feeling shitty about everything that’s going on, on top of our breakup.
    I love Chris, always have, but things between us were more friendly, almost like siblings, and I’d been trying to find a way to break it off gently when Lucian swept in and turned my world upside down.
    Now we’re together and so in love I’m terrified about what will happen when he leaves to go back home.
    “Chris, maybe you should go home and talk to your folks. Tell them how you feel,” I murmur, feeling awkward all of a sudden.
    I need to get home and get ready for the date Luc is taking me on, and I’m definitely in need of a leg shave if I’m gonna try to get him to take our relationship past the kissing stage.
    “You were always so smart and kind. I can’t believe I lost you too.”
    I back up at that hard tone and look into his face, feeling my heart squeeze when he comes closer, his body no more than an inch away from mine.
    “We were so good together, weren’t we, Ash? Why didn’t we make it?” he asks softly, his hands stroking my cheek in a way he never has before.
    Alarm bells are ringing in my head, and I shake my head once, trying to smile through my discomfort.
    “We’re better as friends, Chris. Look, I gotta go—”
    He kisses me before I can finish my sentence and slip out from beneath his arm, his mouth digging my lips into my teeth so hard I taste blood. I try to turn away and shove at his chest, but he’s so strong all I end up doing is getting my arms trapped between us when his arms fold around me.
    A shadow in my periphery gains my attention, and I flail out, screaming into his mouth, trying to get help, but it’s no use. I’m not strong enough.
    The force of his attack is shocking, and I struggle as best I can, crying out when he shoves me to the ground and falls down on me. When he reaches for my zipper it’s a red alarm, and I intensify my fight, managing to lift my knee and jab it up and into his balls.
    I’m free and waste no time running like hell, leaving him panting and crumpled on the concrete as I race all the way home, not stopping till I get inside and slam and lock the door.
    I need to see Luc and feel his arms around me, to feel that safety and comfort that only he can give. Instead I find an empty room and my tearful mother sitting at the kitchen table, her expression pitying as she tells me that he packed up and left with not a word or a goodbye.
    Sometime after that, after endless phone calls and messages, I accept that he’s never coming back, that he’s left me. Forever. And I crawl out of my deep pit of despair, feeling harder, colder than the naïve girl I’d been.
    Two weeks later, after a lot of awkward passes in the hall, Chris finally approaches me and apologizes for his behavior, and it’s then that I learn that the shadow I’d seen while being mauled, the shadow I’d reached toward while crying out for help, was Luc.
    Chris had done what he’d done to split us up, and it had worked. Luc believes I was two-timing him and he’d left, heartbroken, thinking me something I’m not.
    Seven years of hatred and regret later and I’d been swept off my feet by a man who probably hates me. Who’d taken over my life and bound me so tightly I can’t breathe without him.
    And now he’s turned around and given me a taste of my own medicine. Or what he believes is a well-deserved revenge.
    My fault, since I’d never explained what he’d seen in that alley beside the school; pride cometh before the fall and all that.
    I’d broken his heart, and now he’s breaking mine.
    Only this time there’s nothing I can do. I can’t run and try to make a life for myself, because I can never justify separating my kids from their father, and—
    My breath leaves me, and I stand slowly, taking a deep breath and drying my tears with new resolve.
    Lucian ran seven years ago, willing to believe the worst of me, abandoning me when I needed him most. I won’t do that. No,