"Naya, please." I kept my voice steady, even though my Raze was pacing underneath my skin. "Don't do this. We can figure this out together."
She shook her head, staring out the car window. "I can't, Hansel. Everything is happening too fast. I can't handle this on top of everything else."
"Then let me help you handle it. That's what mates do—"
"We're not mates." The words cut through the silence in the car. "Or we won't be, after tonight."
"Naya, please," I begged again. "I don't think—"
But she cut me off. "I can't do this, Hansel. I'm trying to understand, I am, but I just can't."
Still, I tried, holding on to hope that she would change her mind. "We can slow things down. We don't have to figure it all out today—"
"I'm not your Master," she cut in, her tone final. "I'm not anyone's. I don't even know who I am anymore. This—everything with you—feels like it's swallowing me whole."
My Raze snarled inside me. I gripped the steering wheel tighter, my knuckles going white.
