ChapterTwelve
SUNDAY
Istared down at the seven melting marshmallows as they drifted around on the surface of my hot cocoa. God, I didn’t know how to fix this with Kingston’s sisters. Particularly Phe, who seemed to be the ringleader of the crew. But honestly, aside from a knock-down, drag-out fight, I didn’t think anything but time would heal this wound.
And I was fine with that. Not everyone got along with their in-laws. Things didn’t have to be all makeovers and slumber parties between us.
Okay, maybe I wasn’t as fine with that as I wanted to be, but I was trying to talk myself into it.
As I took another sip of my rapidly cooling cocoa, I spotted the bitchy wolf in question stomping through the snow toward the house. Given the way her brows furrowed and anger sparked in those green eyes of hers when they locked on me, time to heal wasn’t on the table. Knock-down, drag-out it would be. Good thing I’d opted for a braid this morning.
I sat my mug on the little wooden table next to my chair and stood before striding toward her. If we were going to fight, I’d rather do it in the open than on the back porch of the Farrell house.
“Phe, I—”
“Save it, slutbag. I’m not interested in a word you have to say.” She tried to shoulder past me, but I caught her by the bicep and swung her back around.
“Be that as it may, you need to hear it. I think it would help with... this.”
“You mean the part where you insulted my entire pack when you rejected my brother and absolutely destroyed him? Or the part where you continue to humiliate him when you spread your legs for other men like a fucking whore? Because excuse me, snowflake, I don’t think there’s anything you can say to fix that.”
Hurt sliced straight through me at the truth in everything she said. In her eyes, me being with four mates was a slight against her brother, unforgivable, unfaithful. She didn’t understand our relationship, and she didn’t have to. But the rest was something I could apologize for.
“I know I hurt him.”
“You fucking ruined him! He used to be sweet and kind, strong but still gentle. After you let him strip down and offer you his bond in front of both of our packs, then turned him down, we lost him too. I’ll never get that Kingston back. But the worst part of it all wasn’t that moment. It was the months,years, after.”
“We’ve talked through what happened. Kingston understands why I had to say no.”
“I don’t fucking care. It doesn’t change what you did. That you broke him. Do you have any idea how close we came to losing him for good? Did he tell you about the night we found him ready to down a bottle of liquid silver?”
Shock ripped through me. Kingston had told me it was bad, but I hadn’t had a clue he’d almost taken his own life to escape the pain that I’d caused. Tears filled my eyes, and it took more than a few tries to blink them away.
“I... I didn’t know.”
“Of course you didn’t. He’d never tell you, would he? No, he has to appear strong and fearless for his preciousSunshine.” She looked me up and down, disgust on her face. “You don’t deserve him.”
“You’re right. I don’t. Maybe I never did. But it doesn’t change that he’s mine now. We belong to each other, Phe. I will spend the rest of my life trying to make amends for what I did, but that’s my cross to bear. You don’t have to like me, but I’m not going anywhere.”
A deep, rumbling growl left her, filling the space between us. A warning. Her eyes flashed amber as her wolf threatened to come to the surface. Even if I hadn’t felt the burn of my bracelet, I still would have known to brace for conflict.
My muscles tensed, my senses going on high alert as she lunged. She transitioned from woman to wolf in one flawless leap, knocking me into the snow as she surged past me.
I fell down in an explosion of snow flurries, too startled to immediately make sense of the fact she was racing toward the trees lining the back of their property.
“Phe? Phe, what the hell are you doing?”
I stood up, brushing the icy flakes off my now wet jeans as I stared after her. The tawny wolf ran straight for a shadowy figure at the tree line.
“Fuck,” I whispered. “What now?”
Not for the first time, I resented my inability to shift. I’d found my wolf only to get knocked up and lose her again. This would be a lot easier if I had fangs and claws at my disposal. Luckily, I’d strapped Alek’s gift to my wrist, wanting to keep any piece of him I could close to me. What had been a sentimental move that morning now seemed fortuitous.
Reaching for the blade, I caught a slight shifting in the trees out of my peripheral vision.
A second attacker.
Fuck, Phe was so distracted with her target she didn’t even notice the new threat. I couldn’t let my mate’s sister get hurt. She might hate me, and I might not like her very much, but I had to help her.