I opened my mouth to agree, but the prickling started as I tried. Ocean met my eyes as I cleared my throat.
“No,” I said.
“So…?”
I took a breath, looking into Ocean’s bright eyes. His hand was warm as he held mine, and his thumb was stroking gently over my knuckle. Perhaps it would be okay to talk about it with him.
I swallowed. I didn’t even know where to start. Jade knew, and Jule had, but I hadn’t told them.
“My father.” My eyes started prickling as I looked at him. “He’s always had a temper, and he often…takes it out on me.”
I pulled up my sleeve, showing him the fading marks the switch had left on my arm. They weren’t raised anymore, and the red had faded to a faint greenish yellow. Soon, they would fade completely, and there would be no evidence left at all.
Ocean had gone quiet, and I didn’t dare look up at him. I stiffened as his hand brushed my shoulder, and the next thing I knew, he’d wrapped his arms around me and pulled me against him. For a moment, I trembled in his arms before I relaxed. A sniff escaped as I rested my cheek against his chest.
“I’m so sorry, Laurel,” he whispered, squeezing me tightly. “No one should ever have to go through that.”
My throat tightened as he held me, my lip trembling as I tried to hold myself together.
“We’re going to destroy him,” Ocean continued. “For thisand every other person he’s ever hurt. Then he’ll never touch you again.”
I heard his words but couldn’t quite accept them. I knew, deep in my soul, that my father wasn’t the kind of person who could be stopped.
“Kaos wants to break you out,” I said. “He says we could get you out tomorrow, but it’ll ruin any chance of you being able to take down my father and the Lucas pack. Finch says he can do both but to ask you. He said he’d get you out tomorrow if that’s what you wanted.”
“Both,” Ocean said without hesitating. “I don’t care. We need to take them down.”
“Is it because Kaos was a fighter here?” I asked. “That’s why you’re trying to get revenge?”
“We’re trying to get justice,” Ocean replied. “Finch will give you a long-winded explanation about honour and dignity and responsibility, but really, we’re just trying to help Kaos heal. Move on.”
“He’s lucky to have a pack like you,” I said.
“Lucky to have Finch, really,” he said affectionately. “We grew up on the same street, and his mom would watch us sometimes when ours was…busy. One day, she was just gone. Finch was a bit older, and he came to check on us. He took one look, then ushered us over to his place and announced we were pack now, and his parents got two more kids, essentially. He’s our big brother in all but blood, and he takes that role very seriously. Finch took it hardest when Kaos got arrested.”
I swallowed, wishing I could have seen that side of Finch, that firm devotion Ocean was describing. It sounded perfect.
“Arrested?” I asked, not wanting the conversation to end. I was eager to learn more about them, even if it was like torture.
“Yeah,” Ocean said, with a frown. “We weren’t well-off. Finch would compete in the rut fights to make money. He didn’t want us doing it, though. Kaos never liked being bossed around, so he went to fight, anyway, but in the wrong places. He’s a rogue. Things went too far, and he ended up in prison.”
“Let me guess,” I said bitterly. “He vanished the day he was supposed to be released?”
Ocean cocked his head, looking at me. “Yeah. How did you know?”
“Valentino loves snatching rogues like that,” I said, referring to one of my father’s cousins. “It’s rare anyone bothers to ask about a rogue, especially if they have a criminal record. A lot of our fighters have a similar story.”
OCEAN
I was still fuming after Laurel left. What the fuck? Her fatherbeather? And now Finch had dark bonded her to us, making us more people who’d added to her suffering.
Something light hit me on the shoulder, and I looked up to see Hugo smirking at me as the wadded-up paper bag rolled across the floor.
“There you are,” he said. “Thought maybe you’d gone deaf. On your feet, boy.”
“What?” I said, looking at him in disbelief.
He stood and waved his hand at me from his cell, beckoning me to my feet. “We’ve got training to do.”
