The memory made my lip curl and a low growl echoed out. I could still picture her sneer and that table loaded down with booze and drugs, not a hint of shame that she’d sold her daughter for it.
“After you went missing, something just didn’t feel right. And I was right. She had a whole buffet of booze and pills and made some comments. They weren’t enough to implicate her, but I had a feeling she was more than involved.”
“Of course, she was,” Aries said bitterly. “My mother would never just let me be free.”
“I spent a whole lot of years in my version of therapy, and I checked every month, twice a month, for updates. The police department was sick of me and finally four years after that, they told me you were found.”
Her jaw dropped open. I knew she could feel all of this through the bond, but I didn’t lock it down. She deserved to know how much I fought for her.
“I don’t understand how they could’ve marked me off as dead. It’s not like I don’t have my own accounts here. Even going by Aries, I still had to use my legal name from time to time.”
“They likely forged the documents,” I admitted. “I’m just happy you’re alive. I told myself you were, that I’d feel it if you weren’t. But as the years dragged on I started to doubt it.”
“I felt the same,” she admitted. “You were the only thing I thought about in there. I dreamt about escaping and fighting my way back to you.”
“Did you ever look for me?”
“For a long time, I was simply getting through each day. We focused on building Widow’s Peak and I had to block a lot about that portion of my life. When I finally found the courage to get information on you, well… it’s been sitting in my email inbox and I haven’t been brave enough to look. The nightmares were bad again?—”
She cut herself off, and my arms held her tighter, refusing to think harder about what she’d gone through since I last held her like this.
“We’re together now and he’ll never touch you again. No one will,” I vowed.
We fell silent as we just held each other, both lost in our own versions of our past.
“I have to pee,” she finally said, wiggling out of my embrace and heading off into the adjoining bathroom.
I finally climbed out of her bed. It was comfortable as fuck, but without her, it wasn’t the same.
I slid on my clothes and actually took my time looking around.
The scents were stronger here. Her scent was distinct, easily the strongest in the room, but there was another one, too.
The beta. He was a complication, but if she needed him, then we’d figure it out.
Despite the hell she had just described to me, it seemed my girl was doing pretty well for herself. This place was nice. Maybe not Victor Crow’s level of spending, but this was a true pack house.
It had heart and life in it.
I could see touches of Aries everywhere. Her signature red was mixed in with decor that was cute and cozy. Things she appreciated back then but her mother would never let her have.
Fresh plants adorned the empty corners, vines creeping up one of the walls and going around the doors that led outside.
Despite that, I noticed there were no pictures.
Everything seemed homey and inviting, but not quite lived in, though I knew she had lived here for years.
“Why do I feel like you’re judging me?”
I glanced around to see that she was dressed now. Her hair was pulled in a cute ponytail and she was wearing a dark green sports bra and matching athletic pants.
My eyebrows rose at her choice of clothing. She crossed her arms, glaring at me.
“What’s with the running clothes? Do you run now?”
“Every fucking day,” she said. Why was she always assuming I wanted to fight with her? “And right now, I have some nervous energy I need to burn off, so I’m going to call my beta, and I’m going for a run. Then we can talk more.”
“What about my pack?” I demanded, frustrated again. It felt like she cared nothing about them. Yet, I owed them everything, including my damn life.
