“What?”
“Well, uh, Rowan, your crazy boy? He’s been helping feed all the feral colonies. He hopped a chain link fence and helped escort Mari and a few others to that torn down industrial building where all those tomcats were. He helped trap a bunch this week, too. Mari loves him now.”
My heart skips a beat at the image of Rowan breaking and entering just to feed some feral cats.
Feeding colonies can be complicated, and sneaking onto property to do it is even more difficult.
And explaining to someonewhyyou had to climb a chain link fence to deliver paper plates full of kibble?
It doesn’t always go over well.
“You’re kidding,” I breathe.
“Nope. Ryland built an app to help locate all the feral colonies within a hundred miles. It’s helping the feeders network with each other.”
“What?”
“Blair, these guys are amazing, seriously. Travis, too. He’s been helping at the clinic with Maeve.”
“Why would they do that?” I breathe. “I told Travis it was over.”
It hurts to say the words.
“The same reason Avery, Maddox, and Poe volunteered when I wasn’t with them,” Piper answers easily. “They cared about the cats and they cared about me. They’re genuinely good Alphas, Blair.”
“Too good for me,” I mumble.
“That’s bullshit, and you know it. Now come back home, please. We all miss you. Even the cats.”
“I’m planning on it tomorrow,” I murmur.
“I don’t know how you lasted this long away from your scent matches. It’s awful to be that far from them,” Piper adds. “You sound horrible.”
“Thanks,” I grimace. “I feel horrible, for a lot of reasons.”
I ran away from my problems because I couldn’t face the truth.
I was too much of a coward to deal with my feelings and left the people that I care about most.
I abandoned my pack, my friends, and the cats, all so I could feel sorry for myself.
“Hey, Blair?”
“Yeah?”
“You know it’s okay to be happy after everything that happened, right? You know you’re not a horrible person if you move on from two years ago?”
Everything in me screamsno.
How could I be allowed to move on when the others couldn’t?
Justin, Aaron, and Cody are stuck in time, while life gets to continue for me.
How is that right?
“I’m not sure,” I admit.
“You’re not a bad person if you allow yourself to be happy.”
