I nod and tug him up onto his feet despite my bones screaming with weakness, but it doesn’t stop me. He laces our fingers together and takes me upstairs to his bedroom.
Once the door is shut, we stare at each other again. I drink in every inch of him. It takes us a while to move to sit on his bed, our knees touching.
“What happened?” he asks before holding my hand and placing it in his lap.
I watch our fingers, taking it all in.
My thumb smooths over his knuckles as I slowly begin to tell him everything that went down with Ryker, with Lula helpingwith my powers, and how I learned that my emotions were the key to accessing them.
Evan cries as I speak, and I try to leave out the gory details of the beatings and the starvation. There is enough guilt in his eyes to send me to my grave when he has nothing to feel guilty for.
“I’m so sorry, Caleb.” He chokes out a sob. “H-how do you feel now he’s gone?”
“Relieved,” I murmur. “A little bittersweet, I guess. But relieved more than anything. I have no family. They’re all gone.”
Evan shakes his head. “I’m your family. Your pack is your family. We’re all you’ll ever need.”
And he’s right. Blood doesn’t mean anything.
“I know, pups. Just trying to wrap my head around it all.”
“I can’t believe you went through all of that.”
“It was my choice to leave,” I state. “It was the only choice.”
He sniffles. “I’m still so angry at you.”
My heart sinks because I left him when he needed me the most. “I’m sorry for how I left,” I say with sorrow and tears in my eyes. “The last thing I wanted was to leave you in that hospital bed alone, but I was running out of time. I hurt you—I know—but I did it for us.”
Evan frowns. “I don’t care that you chose to leave. I care that you told me not to look for you when I know you would have looked for me.”
I would have. Even if he told me not to.
“It’s not the same,” I murmur.
“How can you say that?” He pulls back in disbelief.
“Because your life is more valuable than mine.”
Evan blinks, another tear rolling down his cheek. “No,” he heaves. “No, it’s not. Our lives are equal. You left, and I still looked for you.”
“He broke your leg,” I say gruffly, the image plays in my head, and I grimace. “He could have done worse.”
“I don’t care.”
“Are you okay now?”
Evan nods. “I recovered quicker than I ever have, so that definitely says something. I don’t know whether it was determination or doing those silly affirmations and pretending you were standing behind me.”
My heart quivers as I stroke his cheek. “Maybe you’re learning to let go and live finally.”
“Maybe, but I’m okay now.”
“Going after him was a stupid thing to do,” I mumble, pondering all the possible outcomes.
He gapes at me. “Stupid? I did it because I love you and I couldn’t bear the thought of something happening to you. Did you really expect me to sit here and get on with my life?”
“If it came to it, then yes. I just wanted you to live, Evan.”
