“Not that we couldn’t gather the lad was daft but did it excuse your trying to kill him?” Kai asked.
“I believe it did, yes.” I huffed.
“I gather he cheated on you with your best friend?” Blaise asked.
“You gather right,” I grumbled, shifting in my seat.
Blood roared in my ears as numbness invaded my limbs. It’d been a long time since I’d talked about him, and I’d never told my brothers the whole truth.
My hand clasped over my pendant, and warmth slid through me. “I dated him my senior year of high school. It’s been almost three years, but he still gets under my skin. Travis and Katie both.”
“I can’t blame you there.” Kai shook his head.
“He told me he loved me and used my inexperience to his advantage. I got stuck in a shitty relationship because I didn’t know how to leave or how to say no.” I sucked in a ragged breath. “One night at a party, he grabbed me a little too hard and screamed in my face a little too loud.”
Fragments of the memory assaulted my brain. I could remember the anger that enveloped his face, how the accusatory screams pierced my chest and the way my body flinched away from him out of habit.
“He was mad atmebecause I found out that he and Katie were sleeping together. Then he accused me of not putting out enough.”
Thaddeus’s jaw tightened, and I could hear the grinding of his molars.
Kai’s lips flattened. “He put his hands on you?”
“The fuck?” Blaise cursed.
“Not for the first time.” I pressed my tongue into my cheek. “But that time, my brothers overheard and beat the absolute shit out of him. That was that. I was free, and he ended up dating Katie.” I shifted my gaze, watching the specks of dust float in the air among the bookshelves.
“Remember how I said we’d be working on controlling our emotions?” Kai asked in a tense tone.
“Yeah?”
“Fuck that,” Blaise answered for him.
“I’m impressed,” Thaddeus said as his eyes clouded over. “I didn’t have a shred of control in blood-lust or emotions.”
“I’m an emotional train wreck, actually.” A smile cracked on my face. I wore my emotions like a damn trophy. “I know we don’t know each other all that well and that I’m probably just a blip on your radar, but I’ve never felt such a comfort around anyone before. I feel safe with you three.”
Kai grinned, bumping his shoulder with mine. “Good. We’ll keep you safe.”
“And you’re more than just a fucking blip, Poppy,” Blaise growled out.
Thaddeus nodded. “The feeling is mutual, love.”
Each one of them had my attention in ways no man did before. They awoke some primal part of me that wanted all three of them, but I knew thatprobablywasn’t something on the table. I missed my loved ones, sure, but I didn’t necessarily miss my human life.
SIX
Kai threaded his fingers through mine as we weaved through the aisles of the grocery store. It was my last new lesson of blood-lust control before I added on whatever Blaise would be teaching me—they wouldn’t tell me. He brought me a few towns over so I wouldn’t run into anyone I knew.
Cue the eye roll.
Kai wanted to test me out in public around crowds, and so far, I was killing it. I only leaned in to sniff a humanonce.And it was to smell her perfume, not her blood—Kai didn’t believe that, but I knew the truth.
I mean, okay, her blood did smell kinda good.
“Are we actually buying something, or did you take me a town over just to be in a crowd?” I stopped walking and jerked my hand out of his calming grip.
His calmness not flowing from him to me was a momentary adjustment as I took a few breaths and calmed myself.
