You could hear a pin drop with that statement as Reid rises to the bait with a low growl that has me tensing, preparing to intercept him if he goes for her. “Maybe they can’t find the words to do their thoughts justice.”
“Maybe they should pick up a dictionary and give it another try then,” she counters. “Because I’m getting pretty tired of pretending that there isn’t anything wrong between the two of us.”
Reid only smirks, and a shiver of foreboding snakes down my spine. Because this? This isn’t the brother I know anymore. The twin I know and love all but suffocated his wolf out of existence, choosing to live his life as an emotionless robot. But just as mine’s been running the show for a decade and I’m finally beginning to gain some control back, his other half has stolen the reins right out of his hands, both of us in uncharted territory that we don’t know how to navigate. But if anyone stands a shot at figuring it out, it’s Sabrina. Fuck, she went from human to a hellhound that can burn people to death with her bare hands in the span of a couple of months, all while breathing life back into me and my brothers.
“Get a tattoo of her face, because she’s officially our spirit animal and everyone should know it. She’ll love it, trust me.”
Will you shut the fuck up? That’s weird even by our standards.
The subtle clenching of her fist at her side is the only reaction she gives as he finally faces her head on, showcasing the newfound hardness that’s taken up residence in his crystalline eyes. Well, the sliver of them that's still visible, anyway.
Chair screeching on the floor as he surges to his feet, my brother slaps his palms down onto the table with an audible smack. Nervously, I watch as his pupils recede to showcaseReidregaining some control,yet he doesn’t slow his tirade. “You want to know how I’m feeling? Fine. Jonathan not only stabbed me in the back by pretending to be my friend in order to keep tabs on me, but tried tokillyou. And still, he was the only friend I had outside of my brothers, so I miss him as much as I hate him, which feels like a betrayal to you.” He shakes his head and scoffs. “No, I’m not feeling better. If anything, now that I’ve stopped throwing up and have time to just sit around and think about how much I fucked up, how everyone seems to know something that we don’t, I feel a hell of a lot worse.”
She gives him a small, sad smile before taking a drink. “You and me both. Honestly, I don’t blame you for hating me; I kind of hate me, too. I just needed us to get it out there so we could quit hovering in limbo and finally accept that the cards were stacked against us on this one, to stop torturing ourselves.”
At that, his head whips back to her. “What part of me saving you would make you think that I hate you? I gave up everything for you, Ichoseyou.”
She shrugs and cuts her gaze down to her menu. “For exactly that reason; you lost everything because of me. It’s my fault we were even there. None of it would have happened if we’d simply walked away, left in the middle of the night without a word. I hated how they’d treated you guys, and how much harder your lives became because of me, so I got caught up in wanting to help you get some revenge. To do something useful to help out for once instead of only creating more problems simply byexisting.Using it as a warning to Thatcher to keep their mouths shut was simply a bonus, because really, that threat would have faded as the years passed; out of sight, out of mind. It was the best I could put together on short notice, though, and when none of you guys objected, I figured you wanted the satisfaction of getting a few shots in before leaving them all behind, too.”
Tongue in cheek, she takes a few seconds to center herself before finishing, “And exactly like you were worried about from the beginning, I ruined your life; more epically than either of us could have ever imagined.”
Collectively, we all silently agree to temporarily forget about Damian, turning our frustration onto Reid as the most immediate threat to her. She doesn’t look up at the increasingly loud growl coming not only from his throat, but the entire table’s as we wait to see how he’ll respond. So help me gods, if he makes her cry, I’ll be throwing the first punch.
“Sabrina.” When she still doesn’t look at him, he leans past me to pluck the menu out of her hands, tossing it aside and bracing one palm on the table. “Yes, a small part of me hates that you made me realize how utterly useless I was, how much I’d taken for granted in my life. I hate that you draw out the worst parts of us all and drag them into the spotlight so that we’re forced to face them when denial and avoidance has worked perfectly fine until you showed up. And I hate myself more than anything for holding back because I was afraid, only to realize that fear wasnothingcompared to how completely and utterly terrified I was when I thought I was going to lose you.”
Tilting her chin up, he leans in, lips ghosting across hers. “But I could never hateyou.I love you so much that it physically hurts feeling so much all of the godsdamned time, and I’m sorry that it took me so long to understand that chaos isn’t a bad thing if you’re the one causing it.”
Her tongue darts out to wet her lips. “I’m not. I’m glad you waited to say anything until you were sure that you actually meant it.”
Kissing her once more, he returns to his seat. “Knowing and accepting are two different beasts entirely.” By some miracle, I manage to fight off my laugh at the wordplay so that I don’t ruin their moment. “But I look forward to the day you forgive me enough to feel the same way.”
Scoffing, she reaches for her discarded menu. “You knew damn well I was in love with you when I decided that getting a piggyback ride on a lycan sounded like a perfectly reasonable alternative to shooting you. Especially when, for a split second, it was mildly tempting after how frustrating you’ve been lately.”
His soft chuckle erases all of the tension in the air like a switch was flipped, and I squeeze Sabrina’s knee under the table in silent thanks. After a few more barbs thrown around and a brief interruption as the waiter returns to refill a few of our drinks and write down our order, inevitably, we circle back to the important topics.
Taking another sip to pacify her empty stomach, Sabrina sits up straighter and returns to business mode, tackling the next issue. “It’s likelysomeonefrom Shadow Ridge figured out it was us that fucked with their packs and is hunting us down by now. Or at least Adrian’s probably trailing us to keep track of me so that he doesn’t lose his head. So we should probably rotate someone keeping watch at night to be safe.”
Hunter takes a long pull from his beer. “Already covered. I don’t sleep well on the best of nights, but sure as shit won't be until we get things figured out at home and you situated somewhere that isn’t a damn minefield.”
‘Sweet but Psycho’ begins playing on repeat in my head, and I bite my tongue.Could younot? Important fucking conversation happening here.
“And you’re acting far too invested in the planning stage. That’s not what we do, we pay attention toSabrina.We go where she goes anyway, so no point listening to them squabble over the details. Look at how quickly she switched from wanting to cry to taking a leadership role; that’s important. Our poor mate is grasping at straws to be useful instead of having a meltdown, and sheneedsto relieve that stress somehow before she implodes. Fix it.”
How the hell am I supposed to fix it?
All I get in response is that same damned song playing on a loop until I’m ready to pull my hair out. Tuning back into the conversation at hand, I catch her glancing between Hunter, Damian, and Kaige before taking a deep breath, exhaling slowly. “Speaking of home, who wants to fill us in on who Ash is?”
Bo and I had already assumed something was up with those three after our trip to the mall with Kaige, but didn’t have anything concrete to warrant bringing it up. So it’s incredibly satisfying to watch all of the glares lobbed Damian’s way, even from Kaige and Hunter for outing them, and know our suspicions were valid.
No matter how much Sabrina may like him, if all of her mates are in agreement and deem him a real threat to her, Damian will find himself ‘accidentally beheaded’ while she’s otherwise occupied. Polyamory only works if everyone’s on the same page and content with the setup, but wolves don’t do break ups, we break necks.
“You know, he can’t pull any alpha voodoo on us now that Sabrina claimed us. One bullet between the eyes; it’d be so easy. One less mate to share her with, and seeing as each of us comes as a set, she has what, technically ten? Or if we include Reid, twelve mates right now? That’s a ridiculous number, kill the interlopers. Do it. Doooooo it.”
Will you shut the actual fuck up already!?
Kaige stares at Sabrina as if memorizing her features before resignation crosses his face and he closes his eyes. “Acheron Wilder leads the pack that takes up half of the mountain, the other side divided between the three of us and the Slaughters. As ruthless as your fathers may be, even they know better than to step a toe out of line when it comes to Ash.”
“He’s the one that killed your fathers.”
