“The only thing I care about right now is that you’re here, and I can be in your life again. All I can ask of you is this.” Her face turned serious, and a dread pooled in me, knowing she couldn’t forget what I’d done—“Do you want pepperoni or meat feast?”
And despite the evening I’d already had, I let out a small laugh. “Pepperoni,” I told her. Because no matter how much I hated myself over what I’d done to Mason, even to Cassie, and hiding the full truth from my brother so I wouldn’t ruin his friendship with Mason, I just wanted to enjoy a normal pizza party with my best friend.
Chapter 14 - Mason
Honeycreek spread out around me, demanding me to slow down, to think before I acted rashly, but I couldn’t. All I saw was Cassie—Cassie, my daughter.God. How could I not have known?
All the things I had thought about her father, thinking he had abandoned Bryce and Cassie knowingly. All along, that had been me, and I had, in a way. Guilt and confusion wound through me, turning into anger too hot and fast to stop it. I stormed a path to Hennesey, the bar I knew Jackson would have taken his new date out to.
I didn’t give a damn what he was doing.
All this time… he’d played dumb, indeed. Surely, he knew. He had to have known.
Giving in to my anger completely, I shoved my way into the bar, pushing past some other people heading in there. They began to apologize for getting in the way until they saw my face. I scoured the dimly lit bar, searching every pale, wood table, until I saw Jackson.
And he was there, right in the center of the dancefloor, laughing, as he twirled another girl he wouldn’t call after tonight, but made her feel special enough for a while. Snarling, I walked up to him, my steps heavy enough that he looked around.
“Mase, hey—”
I shoved him back, growling. “Why the fuck didn’t you tell me?”
Jackson’s face flickered—confusion, then fear, and then regret. Swiftly, it was replaced by anger as he recovered from the shove. “She finally told you.”
“You don’t think you should have done that once in these fucking seven years? You’re my best friend, Jackson. How could you?”
“HowcouldI?” Jackson scoffed. “Because Bryce is my sister, Mason! Because I swore loyalty to her, but I had it to you, too, as the alpha.”
“Oh, don’t come to me with loyalty now,” I snarled.
“What would you have done in my position?” Jackson’s question burst out of him as he shoved me back. Around us, the dancefloor had cleared a circle. Eyes were on us, and murmurs filled the room, but I couldn’t pay attention to any of it. All I saw was my best friend’s betrayal.
“I’d have told you,” Mason spat.
“Over a little sister, you swore to protect?” Jackson laughed bitterly, getting in my face. “You don’t get to demand answers, Mase. Not when you did that to her. Do you know how much it's killed me to uphold her need for secrecy? I knew she didn’t tell me the whole story, and I’ve tried not to think too hard about it in favor of watching you grow and mature, become a decent alpha. But back then, you rejected her, and it killed me to have her protect me so I could stay. You slept with her and let her walk away when she needed you.”
“I didn’t ask her to!” I roared.
“You didn’t fuckingstop her,” Jackson yelled back. He thrust an arm towards the door. “You didn’t stop them from tormenting her. I ran after her car that night, begged her to stay, to help me fix what they had caused. I had to watch my sister leave town because of them, because of you.”
“Then why did you bother staying?”
Jackson looked momentarily stunned by my question. “Because you’re as good as a brother to me, and Bryce told me she had to do it alone. She told me I had to let her do what she had to do to keep her baby safe.”
“And you were fine with it?”
“No! It's goddamn torn me up for seven years.”
“How do you think I feel right now?” I ensnared my fingers in the collar of his shirt, forcing him back. Jackson slammed against the bar, grunting. He shoved back, but I kept him pinned. “You knew I had a child for the last seven years. You watched me protect Cassie, and you never once told me the truth. You lied to my face when I asked who her father was.”
“You were pathetic back then,” Jackson spat. “I was your best friend, but I was ashamed. Of you, of myself, of the pack. Of what happened to Bryce, what she went through. Cassie was better off without you back then. Bryce was, too, and that was why I let her leave and never told you.”
Shame and guilt hit me. I growled as my fist rose. I cracked it into Jackson’s jaw. He groaned, shoving me off. His own fist came slamming for me, catching the side of my face. But my anger was pent up—everything was, and the betrayal lanced through me, white-hot and furious. I no longer saw the man I thought of as a brother, as my best friend, but a man who had betrayed me.
Jackson’s face twisted into anger as he came barreling towards me. “I wanted to kill you for how you made my sister feel.”
“I deserved to know I had a child! I would have spent an eternity making it up to her—”
“Do you not realize it's too late for that?” Jackson spat. “She can’t even eat withme. Her brother! You were under pressure, and I want to understand that, but you hurt her. You rejected her.”
