“Are you okay?”

Sadie was startled by the question, still half in shock about what had happened behind Max’s store. The situation had left her feeling shaken up and concerned, not only for herself but for the situation Max had found himself in. What the hell were they talking about? She had overheard them saying something about blood magic, and it was a bit over her head, but it sounded terrifying.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Sadie said quietly. “Thank you.”

It was strange to be here with Max like this. They hadn’t spoken since the night she had told him to get out of her house. She had thought at the time that he hadn’t even tried to contact her at all, but now she knew better. And as soon as she was able to, she was going to try to find all of his correspondences.

“I’ll get dressed and then we can get you home,” Max said, heading to the back room where he apparently kept his spare clothes.

“Wait,” Sadie said suddenly, gripping him by the arm. Max hesitated, but stopped moving, and stood in front of her, his thick brow quirked.

“What is it?” he asked, clearly uncomfortable.

He was probably remembering all the awful things she had said to him and wishing there was something he could do to get away from her for good. Maybe he cared enough to protect her if he had to, but that didn’t mean he wanted anything to do with her. Why would he after the way she had treated him? It made no sense.

“I… I don’t think I want to go back right now. I don’t want to be alone.”

Max sighed, and Sadie kept her eyes on the floor, begging herself not to feast her eyes on Max’s perfectly sculpted body. She had never been able to get used to the way the shifters always shifted back in their fully natural state. It was disconcerting, in a way, being faced with the full force of Max’s incredible abdomen, and the slope of the thighs that made her blush even when he wasn’t in the room. The mere thought of it could sometimes profoundly affect her, whether she was in the process of hating him or not.

“You don’t have to be alone. Come on back with me if you want to, we can talk a bit before I take you home.”

“Okay,” Sadie said quietly.

She followed Max into the storage room, doing her best to keep her eyes glued ahead of her. They bore into the well-defined grooves of his shoulder blades and back muscles that were powerful enough to lift a grown man and carry him all the way across Stonybrooke. He was an amazing specimen, objectively speaking, and if her mother was right and he had been sending her letters all this time, then perhaps he was actually a lot more amazing in all the ways she had never given him credit for.

“So why did you come here?” Max asked, looking at her sternly. He was worried about her. That much was certain. Whenever he adopted that tone, it often meant he was about to chew her out for her recklessness. She had always managed to get herself into trouble. It wasn’t easy to be a human living in a shifter world, no matter who she had with her who was willing to protect her.

“I found something out that I needed to ask you about,” Sadie said, sidestepping the fact that Terry had told her previously about how Max was going to encounter some danger and that he was going to need her help. She had ignored his warning, had gone on about her day as if she hadn’t heard him. That mistake could have cost Max his life. Then where would she be? She would never get to see the man she loved again.

“Yeah,” Max said gruffly. “There’s something I need to talk to you about too.”

Sadie paused, frowning.

“What is it?”

Max sighed, his eyes flashing as he fixed his gaze upon her.

“I need to know that I can let you out of my sight, even if it’s just for a minute. How is it that every time I turn around, something terrible is happening to you?”

Sadie was shocked. It wasn’t like Max to act like this. Something was strange, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. Still, the words hurt and she couldn’t quite get herself to fathom why he was saying such things.

“It’s not my fault that you got yourself into this mess,” Sadie said, glaring at him. “So don’t blame me for it!”

“I’m not blaming you. I’m just telling you that you need to try harder to stay out of trouble. If you see a group of shifters gathering somewhere, you don’t just go in and try to talk to them or reason with them, because you can’t. You’re a human. It should be illegal for your kind to live here without fully understanding the implications of your actions.”

He was angry, and his anger was affecting Sadie profoundly. She wanted to be close to him; to tell him about the letters, about the way she had been pining for him ever since he had left and it had almost felt like a miracle when she had found out he was going to live close by again.

But now, all she could think of was what a jerk he was. How could she love someone who could be so damn unreasonable? It was better for them both to be done with it all once and for all. They clearly couldn’t stand each other. She had been nursing a delusion by thinking things between them were going to work out. Whether he had written her letters or not, it didn’t mean anything. Not when it came to being together in person. They could easily idealize each other and their situations without having to be together.

“I don’t know why I thought coming here to talk to you was going to be a good idea. It never is and never has been. All you ever do is make me wish I had never even met you!”

Max narrowed his eyes at her, clearly hurt, or angry, by her words. He shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose, then let out a deep exhale. Sadie stared at him; the way his body curled over in defeat and the way his loose grey sweatpants clung to the broad muscles of his torso. Everything between them could have been so perfect if he hadn’t been such a jerk!

“Tell me something I don’t know,” Max growled at her, pushing past and out of the small storage room, into the open area of the store. “All I ever hear about is what a piece of shit you think I am. And then you get mad when you insert yourself into my life, get yourself into trouble, and I ask you not to do that. That makes a whole hell of a lot of sense. Thank you.”

Sadie’s cheeks burned at the words spilling from Max’s lips. It was no use trying to talk to him. Sometimes, it was better just to let sleeping dogs lie, and she always seemed to provoke him. Maybe he was right. Maybe she got herself into situations she couldn’t handle and it was always up to him to get her out of them. But she would never have been there if Terry hadn’t mentioned just how dangerous it was for Max to confront the rival shifters.

“Look, it was a mistake for me to come here. I thought we would be able to work something out, maybe come to an understanding. But you haven’t changed at all and you never will. Maybe if you could, we would be able to be together and be happy, like we deserve, but you can’t even honor that aspect of our love. It’s unbelievable. I’m going now. Don’t even bother to follow me because you aren’t welcome.”

Sadie stormed out of the store, her heart in her throat, wishing more than anything that she would be able to get what she really felt off her chest. She wanted to apologize to him. To tell him how sorry she was for everything that had happened. She wanted to let him know she felt completely responsible and that if she hadn’t gotten in the way and alerted the bad shifters to his presence, then maybe he would have had a chance to make something of himself right in Stonybrooke, where they would be able to forge a deep relationship together and become the great couple they were truly meant to be.

She wanted him to know she hadn’t gotten the letters. That she wasn’t just ignoring him all those years.

And yet, in the heat of the moment, her stubbornness and pride and genuine anger nearly drove her over the edge. She had to stop saying things she didn’t mean, but part of her truly believed that everything would be better for the both of them if they gave up on this tarnished dream of being together and just focused on the more important things in life; like learning how to be happy.

She half-expected Max to follow her out, but he didn’t. He watched her leave, making no move whatsoever to change her mind. She had to admit that it hurt to be brushed aside like this, but it was nothing compared to the pain she felt when facing herself. She had messed everything up. Again. She had gone in blind and ended up with nothing to show for it. How could she have been so stupid? Why did she always seem to repeat the same mistakes over and over and over again?

 

She stalked out to the sidewalk, her hands stuffed deep in her pockets. She hadn’t even driven there; she had walked…more like ran…from her date with her mother. And now, she was stuck getting home on her own. But that was nothing compared to the pain of being stuck in Max’s store a moment longer. All of her hopes had been crushed, once again, by his harshness, and by the difficult reality that the two of them were never going to be able to connect romantically again.

It was a long way home, but she was grateful for the chance to be away from him. As hard as it was to understand the danger she could begin, she felt pretty confident nothing was going to happen. At least, not tonight. There was plenty of things going on, and she trusted the integrity of the wolf shifters. However, the hybrids were a new issue entirely, and she almost started to regret denying Max’s help in getting home safely.

She ended up hailing a cab, and rode in silence, watching the rows of houses speed by through her window. She almost dreading getting back to her own house, remembering the night she had shared with Max there when he had first come back to town. She wished she could get back to that. That easy, comfortable feeling with him. But no matter how hard she tried, the evidence continued to mount until she was positive their entire relationship had been completely pointless.

But that was just something she was going to have to live with. She had done her best to make your peace with it for the past fifteen years. Now she was going to have to do the same, and just hope that having him there wasn’t going to complicate things any further than it already had.