“No! No, Mason, it’s fine. Sit down and eat.”
“You don’t want—”
I was growing quickly overwhelmed. I shook my head, clamping my mouth shut.
“Bryce, let me make it up to you—”
“I don’t want to eat in front of you,” I snapped. “Just—just sit down,please.”
“Okay.” The plate in hand, he backed up the short, few paces to the sofa. “Okay. I’m sitting, all right? I’m sorry for pushing.”
I followed him, annoyed. “The fact you don’t get that I wouldn’t be able to eat with you is just… I’m sorry, but that’s just stupid. How could you think I’ll even be comfortable doing that with what you did to me? What you letthemdo to me?” Before he could answer, I was talking again, irritated and worked up. “And why were you outside my house? Are you spying on me? Are you spying on my daughter? And—and another thing, why would you even ask her about her father? That’s… that’s just putting her in the middle of something she doesn’t have the answers to, and it’s unfair to confront her because you know she’s too young to oppose you or tell you to fu—”
“Bryce.”
“What?” I shouted.
“Breathe.”
“What?” I asked again, confused.
“Breathe.” With the most satisfied smirk on his face, Mason took a large bite of the grilled cheese, eating almost a whole half in one go. I glared at him, hating that he didn’t have an ounce of self-consciousness to do that. That nobody had ever made him feel bad enough that he wanted to hide his body, or what or how much he ate. Nobody ever judged his eating speed or how large of a bite he took.
“You know, in some parts of shifter existence, a female member of the pack making the alpha food means that—”
“Don’t even go there,” I seethed.
He flinched back before nodding. “You’re right. And to answeroneof your questions, because God knows, that girl is certainly your child, Bryce, I’ve been watching over you. Ever since you arrived, I’ve been making sure your house is kept safe. From the pa—from the demons. Djinn.”
“You have?” I frowned, the knowledge dousing my sparking anger almost immediately. Slumping down against the arm of the couch, I faced Mason. To look at him hurt, but to look away meant feeling weak, and I couldn’t stand that, either.
He nodded, chewing through another bite of grilled cheese. Some of the butter slickened his mouth, and a feral, stupid part of me wanted to taste it—tastehim, the part of me that didn’t like how we’d spent seven years apart. The other part of me wanted to throw him out of the door.
As if he noticed the energy draining out of me, he leaned forward, setting his empty plate down on the wooden coffee table. “Bryce, talk to me. Don’t just yell at me or snap. Actually,talkto me.”
I let out a helpless laugh, feeling more and more exhausted by the second. “What is there to say? We’ve had seven years of distance between us, and before that, you supportedme being ousted from the pack. Mason, if I were to speak to you, I wouldn’t even know where to begin, so I’ve long since learned to hold my tongue and not ask about you, or try to grab your number from Jackson, because I’m scared that the moment I start talking, I’ll…”I’ll realize that being in love with you was never very deeply buried within my heart. That I’ll easily remember how much I felt for you, and how little you felt in return.
“You’ll?” he prompted. His gaze seared into me, and beneath his attention, I forgot to breathe.
“Nothing,” I sighed. “Forget it.”
“There’s plenty to say,” he responded.
I fixed him with a hard look. “Then, by all means.”
Mason sighed, and I tried not to notice how his biceps flexed as he ran a hand through his hair before letting his hands relax at his sides. “The last seven years have been… strange. Ever since I found out you left, everything’s felt off-kilter. Seeing you the other day in that cottage, how pale your face was with fear, it struck me. I should have always been there to protect you—”
“You could ha—”
“Let me finish, Bryce. I’m the alpha and know what I’m supposed to do, but I’m out of my depth right now. The djinn, the fires, you…” He let his gaze flick to me, where it had been fixed on the sofa.
“What do you mean byme?” I asked.
When he next spoke, it was with more softness than I had expected. It sent something through me, something that tasted like forgiveness, even if it was shrouded with my old bitterness. “I did everything right, and yet…”
Right. I didn’t know what part of ousting me from the pack, forcing me away, rejecting me, wasright,but I only swallowed, listening to him.
“Bryce, I’m so sorry.” The words came, unexpected, as he reached for me before he balled his fist at the last moment and lowered it. “I shouldn’t have done all that bullshit years ago. I shouldn’t have letthemdo it, or joined in. I—I was a coward, and I should have done better by you. And these years between us… for me, they’ve been spent waking up every day with regret and the desire to track you down.”
