Jessica lay curled up on the cold stone floor of her room, her body trembling as waves of pain surged through her. The agony felt like it was tearing her apart from the inside. Her fingers gripped the edge of her bed as she gasped for breath, and her teeth gritted against the searing ache. She hated this—the unbearable sensation that struck every time she felt Damien and Anne together. It was like a dagger twisting in her chest, a sharp reminder that the bond she had with Damien was incomplete and fractured.
She could feel them now, making love. The half-mark she carried, the one that had been forced upon her, connected her to Damien in the cruellest of ways. She wasn't his true mate, and yet she felt every flicker of his emotions, every moment of tenderness he shared with the woman.
Tears blurred Jessica's vision, but she quickly wiped them away.
