Centaur Redemption (Touched Series) Read Online Free PDF

betrothal to you.  She hates your grandfather.  I can’t choose you, Gage.  I thought time might wear her down; it’s been years, but she refused to hear of it.  Mom told me I could choose, but if I didn’t choose a Centaur in the next month, she would select a Centaur for me.  I’m so sorry – I thought if I chose Drake we could still at least be around each other.”
    My heart felt as though she had inserted a serrated blade and was slowly removing it from my chest.  “Be around each other?  So I can watch my best friend and the woman I love make a life together?”
    “If I chose anyone else, I would never see you again.  I can’t have you, but with Drake as my husband, I can still be a part of your life.  I’ll take you in whatever way I can get you – even if it’s from afar.”
    It hurt like hell because I loved them both.  I was angry – so angry that I sat on the phone with her – unable to speak.  The hurt wouldn’t go away.  I had been betrayed by the woman who held my heart, the only woman I would ever give it to.  I cut ties to both of them.  No phone, no texts, no email – I even enlisted Mom to tell me where Bianca was before I left the house each morning to make sure our paths didn’t cross.  Not that I left the house often; I was heartbroken and grieving for a love never to be. 
    It was in those weeks of pain that I finally understood my father’s words.  He hadn’t been a hypocrite.  The love that coursed through my veins for Bianca was all-consuming and her loss was indescribable.  To have her plucked from my life was akin to having the fiber of my being, my soul, stolen.  For the first time in my life, I understood how Dad had felt for Angela.  Angela took his heart with her when she made her escape.
    The day Bianca called and pleaded with me to meet her at Andolini’s for lunch was to be my last dose of the drug my body craved.  It had been over a month since I had seen her.  I still couldn’t think straight.  The hurt refused to subside, but I convinced myself that after one final meeting with her in public, it would be over.  I told myself that the reason I hurt so bad was because I never got a chance to say good-bye in person.  I swallowed what was left of my pride and agreed to meet her for pizza. 
    As I stood in the parking lot staring at the doors, my hands wouldn’t stop shaking.  Would I be strong enough to let her go again?  Would I make a fool of myself and break down in front of a restaurant full of people, begging her to run away with me?  My head began to throb as my heart raced out of control and blood hammered through my body.  She was just on the other side of those double doors.  My feet shuffled forward of their own accord.  She was pulling me to her.  I glanced back at my car, considering a fast getaway in favor of the pain that awaited me inside.  I took a breath to steady myself.  Five minutes – I could do this, I could say my final good-bye and let her go for good.
    When I stepped inside the restaurant, there had to have been music playing and people talking, clanging in the kitchen, but I neither heard a sound nor saw anything beyond Bianca’s beautiful face.  She pulled me over to a small table.  Her words were like music.  “Camille Strayer is going to choose Drake.  He’s going to break our betrothal.  Do you know what this means?  If he breaks our betrothal, I’m free.  She’ll be embarrassed that her daughter has been jilted by her betrothed.  Mom will let me choose you.  Gage, we can be together.”
    Her words sunk in slowly.  Could it be true?  Had she found a way for us?  I knew all the Centaurides our age in the area – we all did.  I’d never heard of Camille.  “Who's Camille Strayer?”
    “It doesn’t matter who she is.  A psychic Centauride from the Barber herd told me it’s going to happen.  I’ve seen the two together.  They’re like electricity.”  A giddiness resonated in her