“It wasn’t. Sweetheart, it?—”
“It was. Itwas. Don’t try to downplay what I did,” I hiss. “I could have told them to stay here!” I gesture to my living room. “They could have slept on the couch, but I sent them away! Every fuckingdayI regret it. Every day I think about what I could have done different, what I could have said to change everything!”
“I don’t know who put that bullshit in your head,” Travis snarls, “but it’s not true. Whoever told you that, whoever made you feel that way, they’re wrong.”
I shake my head and chuckle bitterly. “No.You’rewrong. Everyone I care about gets taken away from me, sooner or later. That’s how this works. And yesterday proved that.”
I’ve never admitted the words out loud before.
But secretly, I worry about the people closest to me since the car crash.
I worry that one day something will happen to Piper or Maeve, and that somehow, I will be the cause.
I worry and worry until there’s nothing left but a wall of stone around me.
I stopped trusting easily.
I stopped opening up.
And the moment I start to think I can be happy, that maybe life isn’t so bad, something terrible happens.
Travis isn’t hearing it. “That’s not how life works. Do you think you’re somehow responsible for everyone else’s actions? You’renot. What happened yesterday and what happened two years ago wasn’t your fault.”
Yes, it was.
“Stop,” I whisper. “Just stop.”
“Aaron, Cody, and Justin aren’t gone because of you. They died because the weather was shit.”
“Stop!” How he knows their names, I don’t know. I can barely speak them out loud anymore, but to hear it come from Travis?
But my yelling doesn’t deter him. “You think you’re the only one that’s had to deal with loss?” he snarls. “You’re not. I know what it’s like to blame yourself. And you would know that, if you would just fuckingtalkto me.”
My guilt is heavy and awful, but I don’t back down from Travis.
“Really? Talk to you? Just like you didn’t want to tell me you were in an accident because you knew it would upset me? This is just proving my point! I’m not good for you!”
“You’re my scent match! You were made for me!” he roars. “We were made for each other!”
There are thumps that sound from my bedroom, and I narrow my eyes.
“You scared the cats,” I huff.
He stares at me, his chest heaving. “Whatever you think you’re doing here,” he says, motioning to my suitcase. “Shutting us out won’t help. Sodon’t.” His voice cracks.
“You don’t know me as well as you think,” I say, grimacing. “I’m not good for the three of you.”
“That’s a goddamn lie. You’re the best person we know. The smartest, wittiest, bravest person on this planet.”
I snort at his words.
What a joke. Brave? I’m a coward, trying to convince myself that I don’t love the Alpha in front of me.
His scent swirls around me, smokey and heavy.
It’s the scent of his despair.
His eyes, dark and expressive, plead with me.
