“I absolutely would,” he says, sounding so serious it surprises me. “I will protect you against Jordan no matter what.”
“I know you will,” I say quietly. “You are the only one I can trust, Forest. I have no one else.”
“That’s not true. Griffin is on your side. He and I would have never made up without you.”
“You would have been fine without me,” I say. “Maybe it would have taken you longer, but—“
“Bullshit!” he says. “I was caught up so deep in my parents’ shenanigans that it would have been too late for me to get out of this myself. You literally saved me and my pack, and I will never forget that you did. I won’t disappoint you,” he says with so much confidence and finality in his voice that it both startles me and puts my mind at ease.
“Your parents are fools,” I say. “You are a great alpha. Strong, loyal, and you always have the interest of those around you in mind.”
He is quiet for a while before I feel him rest his chin against my head. “I don’t know if Iamany good, Rose,” he mutters. “But I know now that my parents were terrible, and that my father was a failure as an alpha. I will prove to my pack that I am different.”
“You are fine the way you are,” I say. “Being yourself is enough. Actually, being youisyour strength.”
“Look at you,” he mutters. “Now, you are suddenly comforting me.”
“It’s a give and take,” I say.
“It was fate,” Forest says, tightening his grip slightly and rocking me in his arms. I shouldn’t enjoy this gesture, but I can’t help it. It’s been so long since someone just held me. “I believe it was fate. On the day I felt like I’d lost everything, the goddess led me to you. And you changed everything.”
Something in the pit of my stomach feels warm all of a sudden. I am used to feeling empty and cold; this is the first hint of warmth I can feel blooming inside me in a long while. Like a little fire that just got lit. “Maybe it is,” I say. “I was prepared to die to get away from Jordan. I wanted to fight, I wanted to have my revenge, but I was ready to just pass on if it meant never to return to him. That’s when you appeared, and I woke up in that old cottage, with a kind alpha who apologized for seeing me naked.”
I don’t need to see him to know he blushes. “I didn’t want you to feel like I was taking advantage of the situation.”
“I know,” I say. “I also know that back then I took a major risk by telling you my story, but now I am glad I did.”
“Me, too,” he says.
I finally move back a little to look in his eyes. They are gentle and warm, like everything about him. “I won’t let anyone hurt you either,” I say. “I will make sure everyone sees you for the man you are.”
He smiles. “We are in this together.”
*FOREST*
I am so pissed when I walk to my training the next day. Jordan, that fucking psycho! Rosea always looks well put together and calm, but on these rare occasions, I can see what he did to her and how he tried to break her.
I did not expect to see Rose break down the way she did, and it was an eye-opener for me to see firsthand how terrible that fucker Jordan was.
“Forest!”
I did not expect to hearhervoice, my skin instantly crawling. How could I ever think she was my friend? “What’s the problem, Lissa?” I ask, trying not to sound too rude. I couldn’t give a flying fuck about her, but I still have to pretend. I don’t want her to get suspicious.
When Lissa runs towards me, not stopping, I take a step to the side, making her run past me. “What are you doing?” I ask, stunned.
She takes a few breaths, grabbing my arm while doing so. “It’s just… I missed you…”
I pry her fingers off my arm. “Lissa, I have a mate.”
“But how can you toss away what we had?” she exclaims.
“We were never a couple,” I say.
“You kissed me.”
I stare at her. “No, I didn’t. What makes you say that?” Lissa glances at something behind me, smiling when she notices me looking at her.
Yeah, right. I have had enough experience with my loving family by now to know when there is something shitty going on. “We were just friends, and you know that. I would never kiss a woman just like that, especially not someone from my pack. Whereas,”—I make sure to talk extra-loudly. I am not sure if she or someone else is recording me, or maybe filming me, but going by her bizarre questions, I take a wild guess they want me to confess to something—“you’ve had various boyfriends during the last couple of years.”
