Chapter 14 - Space

Jude

I loved every moment I spent with my mate. They were always precious and sweet as I jogged to the table we were once at, not wanting to delay Rosie.

After picking up the charger, I walked out with a small smile to apologize to her for the wait, but my steps still because Rosie wasn’t outside.

I blinked and scanned the quad, checked the bench outside where students usually sat, but nothing.

“Rosie?” I called out, my voice carrying in the chilly evening air.

No answer.

I walked back to where I expected Rosie should be, but she wasn’t there. I saw some ladies lingering gazes on me, and I brushed them off. They should have known by now I wasn’t interested. Even before my mate came along, I never looked at the opposite sex.

I sniffed the air and noticed it was tinged with her scent and something unpleasant, which made my wolf stir uneasily in my chest. Something was wrong. Rosie couldn’t just leave like that. We always walked to the café together.

I pulled out my phone and called her. It rang once, twice, three times before going to voicemail.

I texted instead.

Hey, where did you go?

I waited for her response. Rosie always replied fast, maybe not as fast as me, but... One minute. Two. No response.

I didn’t see you outside.

My wolf started pacing, agitation building. Where was our mate? Why did she leave?

I tried to mind-link with my sister, but the link was blocked. Then I walked the familiar path toward the café, checking every corner, every building entrance. Maybe she’d just started walking without me. Maybe she was already at work.

But when I pushed through the café doors, Maya looked up from behind the counter with a smile that faded when she saw my face.

“Have you seen Rosie?” I asked, not bothering with pleasantries.

Maya’s brow pulled together in a frown. “No. She’s not answering my texts either. She didn’t show up for her shift.”

My stomach dropped. “What?”

“I texted her twenty minutes ago asking where she was. Nothing.” Maya’s concern mirrored my own now. “Did something happen?”

“I don’t know.” I ran a hand through my hair, frustration building. “We were at the library, I went back to grab my charger, and when I came out, she was just... gone.”

“That’s weird.” Maya wiped down the counter slowly, thinking. “She never misses a shift without calling.”

I pulled out my phone again, sent another text.

Rosie?

Where are you?

Are you okay?

My wolf was clawing at my mind now, snarling and snapping. Mate. Find mate. Mate is hurting. The animal didn’t understand why I was standing here when our mate had disappeared. Every instinct screamed at me to track her scent, follow her home, and make sure she was safe.

“Jude?” Maya’s voice broke through. “Are you okay? You look...”

“I’m fine.” I wasn’t. My wolf was barely contained, pressure building in my chest. “If she contacts you, can you let me know?”

“Of course.”

I left the café, got on the outside bench, and just sat there. Stared at my phone.

What happened?

Did I do something wrong?

I replayed the afternoon in my mind. The study session had been good. Great, even. She’d been smiling, laughing at my bad jokes, accepting my head pats with that shy, pleased look that made my chest warm. What changed?

Please answer me.

My wolf howled—an actual sound that tore from my throat. The mate’s bond pulled at me, incomplete and aching. She was hurting. I could feel it like a physical thing, this distress radiating through whatever connection we’d built.

I’m sorry for anything I did.

I sent text after text as the evening darkened into night. I sat on the bench outside, trying to ground myself, not to be a stalker and go to her cottage, because if I did, I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from following her around.

I checked my messages every thirty seconds, and there was nothing. I just sat there while my wolf paced and snarled, both of us wondering what the hell had gone wrong.

***

Rosie

I woke up with swollen eyes and a pounding headache. For a moment, my brain froze, trying to remember why my face felt heavy, and the pillow was damp before everything crashed back. The girls’ mocking, their cruel laughter, and the plain truth of how I looked beside Jude.

I rubbed my temple, trying to ease the headache and the pain I was feeling deep in my heart, which ached painfully. I grabbed my phone from the nightstand and tapped the dark screen to check the time.

Sh*t, I woke up late as I saw many message notifications. I swiped down, and I felt my heart thudding deep in my ears.

Dozens of messages filled my screen. As I read through them, they started with worry before turning to desperation, and I wanted to—

What do you want to do?

I’m sorry for anything I did.

Just let me know you’re safe

The last two texts made guilt hit me like a wave. He’d been worried. Of course, he’d been worried. And I just... disappeared like that. Ignored him and stood him up. Let him think he’d done something wrong when he’d done everything right.

And that was the problem, wasn’t it? He was too good. Too kind. Too perfect. And I was...

I looked at myself in the mirror across from my bed. Puffy eyes, messy hair, and freckles stood out stark against my pale skin. The girls were right. What did someone like Jude see in someone like me?

If not pity.

I should respond. I should tell him I was okay. But what would I say? That I heard people talking about us? That I’d realized they were right?

My phone buzzed with a text from Maya.

Are you okay? Jude came by looking for you yesterday. He was really worried.

I stared at the message and blinked continuously. Both Maya and Jude... I got dressed slowly, mechanically, and decided to take the other path and avoid the main gate where I knew Jude would probably be waiting for my pathetic self.

If I timed it right, I could slip into my class without seeing him. I could avoid this conversation a little longer and any confrontation.

But when I reached the hallway, trying to stay inconspicuous, I heard my name.

“Rosie.”

My body stilled, and I couldn’t turn.

Footsteps behind me, then Jude was there, gently taking my shoulders and turning me to face him before pulling me to a corner as I kept my eyes down, focused on the ground, on his shoes, anywhere but his face.

“What happened?” His voice was soft, as if he were treading on something fragile. “Did I do something wrong?”

I shook my head, feeling tears burning already. “No.”

“Then why—” He stopped, and I felt him lean closer, trying to see my face. “Have you been crying?”

“I’m fine.” I bit out. Yeah, I’m fine. If I said that loud enough, maybe I’d believe it.

“You’re not fine.” His hands tightened slightly on my shoulders, not to bruise but to get me to look at him. “Please talk to me. You just disappeared, and I—” His voice broke, and my breath hitched. “I was worried.”

I blinked back the tears that wanted to escape and raised my head to look at him. I felt my heart pull. His gaze, his eyes, were so warm and kind, pulling me in as worry etched his brow. “It’s not you,” I whispered. “It’s me.”

“What are you talking about?”

I swallowed the lump in my throat. I didn’t deserve that expression, or rather, I didn’t want that expression because it would make me read meaning into it. “I heard these girls talking. Outside the library, after you went back inside.” The words tumbled out now, shaky and awful. “They were talking about us. About how we don’t fit together. About how you’re... you, and I’m...”

“Rosie—”

“They said You probably feel sorry for me. That you’re too nice to tell me to leave you alone. And they’re right, Jude.” My voice broke. “Look at us. You’re the hockey captain, you’re smart and handsome, and everyone likes you. And I’m just—”

“Don’t.” His voice was firm now. “Don’t say what I think you’re going to say.”

“It’s true, though.”

“It’s not.” He pulled me closer, one hand coming up to my face, gentle fingers under my chin, forcing me to look at him. “They don’t know anything. They don’t know you.”

“But they’re not wrong about—”

“Yes, they are.” His jaw clenched. “I’m not with you because I feel sorry for you. I’m with you because I want to be. Because you’re smart and kind and beautiful—”

“I’m not beautiful.”

“You are to me.” Sincerity laced his voice. “You are to me, Rosie.”

Although my heart skipped at the words, I couldn’t let myself be drunk on them, so I pulled back slightly and wrapped my arms around myself. “I need time.”

His hands dropped. “What?”

“I need to think. I need...” I couldn’t look at him. I didn’t want to see the kind of look on his face. “I need space.”

The silence stretched between us. I could feel him staring at me, but I didn’t raise my head like the coward I was.

“How much time?” His voice was rough now.

“I don’t know.”

“Rosie—”

“Please, Jude.” I finally met his eyes again, saw the pain there, and hated myself for putting it there. “I just... I can’t right now.”

His jaw ticked. His hands clenched at his sides. Every line of his body screamed he didn’t want that, but finally, he nodded.

“Okay.”

I blinke d. “Okay?”

“But I’m not giving up on you.” His voice was firm, final. “I’ll be right here when you are ready.”

And he turned, and I watched him go as my heart wrenched in pain.