“I should add that Shiloh is a protector, which you may have noticed. Except, it doesn’t extend to everyone. He has to have a connection first, and there aren’t many people that he’s connected to,” she adds. “I backed off not because I thought I was being a burden, but because Shi was helping his mother get back on her feet. His father was abusive, and Shiloh killed him. He made the man disappear, and I helped him afterward.”
“Wow,” I whisper. “No one noticed that he was abusing his family?”
“At a certain level in society, everyone turns a blind eye. Shiloh played football in school, so the bruises were attributed to that,” Cassidy says. “Mr. Calvin Tremaine ruled with an iron fist, and no one noticed his extremely quiet wife. Society has a penchant for failing the people who need the most help. So while I left Shiloh helped build his mother back up from the crumpled woman she’d become, I allowed my mother to talk me into attending a party.”
Shit.
“What kind of party?” I rasp. A part of me is enthralled by her words, while the other part is screaming at me that this is going to hurt.
“One of her friends was having a party, and she dragged me to it. I was wearing a pretty, short dress that while beautiful, showed a lot of skin. Being tall makes it difficult to feel as if you're going to flash your ass or not,” she grumbles. “My mom said it was fine, and my father backed her up while rolling his eyes at me.”
“It wasn’t fine though?” I ask.
“Not at all. It was all guys, and then me,” she scowls. “We were dressed up, and our mothers hung out and chatted. At one point, we were pushed out to the basement and told to “get to know each other.”
“You can’t force that,” I say. “Cassidy, what did they expect to happen?”
“I think my mom was hoping I’d forget about Shi, but we’d already agreed that we’d be pack no matter what,” she says. “It didn’t matter that we were in high school and sixteen. Shiloh and I have always been ride or die. My mother thought that Shi couldn’t handle me, and that I needed a stronger hand.”
“You’re not a bull or a horse,” I grunt. I know what it’s like to know at a young age that someone is your forever. Her mother clearly refused to understand.
“I’m not,” she says, lips twitching in amusement for a moment. “Sometimes, when you get ten guys and one girl in a room, they decide to tie you down and take turns raping you. I screamed, cried, and begged, but no one could hear me. The basement was well insulated from the rest of the house, and I couldn’t get free. It wasn’t until they took a break and went back upstairs that I was able to get one of my hands free to text Shi for help. One of the idiots had left his phone near me to remind me there was no way to get free and take video. I have Shiloh’s number memorized for emergencies, and he’s never changed it. My wrist was bloody and ripped up, but I damn well got free.”
My eyes get misty as I shake my head at her words. She was sixteen, and her own fucking mother put her in this position! I don’t realize I’m sniffing until Cassidy wraps her arm around me.
“Shiloh broke in through the basement window, and released me. He asked me what I wanted to do, and I said I wanted them to pay. So I pretended to still be tied up, and Shi hid. When they came downstairs, he beat the fuck out of them, and I threw on his hoody and helped,” Cassidy explains. “Shiloh had taught me how to fight, but ten to one when I wasn’t expecting them to jump me aren’t exactly fair odds.”
“Fuck no,” I say, hiccuping as I cry. “Did anything happen to Shiloh or you for beating them up?”
“Nope. Shi said he’d come back and finish the job if they told the truth and he sent all the videos to himself to blackmail them before deleting them from their devices,” she says, smirking.
There’s tear streaks down her face as well, and neither of us are unaffected by her story.
“I had a really hard time after that. I apologized to Shiloh for going to the party, because I felt guilty. If I’d told my mother no, or fought harder, maybe I’d be able to get out of it. Not only that, one of the guys managed to give me an infection, and it was sobad I can’t have children now. I was asymptomatic until it was too late,” Cassidy says with a sigh. “The consequences of going to that party?—”
“You didn’t invite those guys to attack you,” I snarl.
We’re on a very quiet street, and the rain is beginning to fall harder. We both ignore it, locked only on each other as I pull away to glare at her. My heart hurts for her, because if anyone should have children, it’s her.
She’s such a beautiful person. This pisses me off so much. Damn people who can’t keep their hands to themselves. They should get them all chopped off!
“You’re also not responsible for someone else’s actions, especially when your mother is the one who put you in that situation,” I add. “I really don’t like her already.”
“It’s why we don’t see her often,” Cassidy says, shrugging. “My mother enjoys the position I’ve taken in society, yet wishes my pack was different. There’s a lot of things I internalized growing up with her. I have to remind myself that a strong body isn’t one that’s fat or masculine. I dress the way I want, but I can see the scars left from having a father who didn’t have enough time for me, and a mother who didn’t believe I was enough.”
“You’re more than enough,” I growl, angry on her behalf.
“It’s a battle to continue to remind myself of that,” she says sadly. “Every day, people are put in impossible situations, and then they’re forced to live with the fallout. Sometimes the living part is hard for me.”
“You’re one of the best people I know,” I say honestly, hugging her. “I mean it. You could have left Bell and I to be someone else’s problem.”
“Never,” she says, pulling me with her as she begins to walk again. “While I love this city, I don’t always enjoy the people who live in it. I could never have left you once I knew what was happening, scent matches or not.”
We’re both quiet as we walk, and soon I see that we’re almost home.
“Are you going to see your mom at this event you’re going to?” I ask finally.
“Unfortunately,” she mutters. “We’ll have to go together as a pack. My mother will be insufferable and probably a little prejudiced due to the pack’s age difference to you and Bellamy.”
