The words rang like an accusation in his head. The way she'd said the words, it haunted his mind, the distance giving him sudden sharp clarity to look at the last months in retrospect. She’d not asked for anything from him, not even his reciprocation for her affection. And yet, he felt like he’d made a huge, huge mistake by withdrawing, by being wary of her.
Alpha sat outside her apartment building, pondering all the possibilities, and wondered when this farce of a marriage had become so important to him.
“Are you going in?” Hector asked from the front, knowing there was something going on between him and his wife but not prying.
The phantom pain in his right eye socket made the skin under his patch itch. The memory of her soft lips kissing him where he was the ugliest made the weight in his chest heavier, so heavy he had to drag a breath in. Fuck, how bad had he messed up?
Gritting his teeth, he stepped out of the car and went to the door, pressing the button for the apartment.
The buzz cut off as Zenith’s voice came from the speaker. “Who is it?”
“Alpha,” he said into the little machine and heard silence over the line. He hoped she didn’t lock him out. Given how close the sisters were, he didn’t think Zenith had a high opinion of him at the moment. He'd break the fucking door if he had to, but he wanted to avoid it. No sense in making things unnecessarily hard.
Thankfully, the door buzzed open and he went in, dread pooling in the pit of his stomach for the first time in a long time, at the possibility that Zephyr might not want to go back with him. It made him halt in his tracks, the epiphany that he didn’t want to lose her, not yet, sinking over him. He hadn’t had enough of her light. There was so much more to be had between them, so much he’d been denying them both deliberately. She'd snuck in, whether he'd wanted to or not, and now he didn't want her gone. It was a realization that he had something to lose, for the first time since his mother died.
He rubbed his chest, a low rumble escaping him at the thought of her telling him she’d never come back.
No. He’d find out what went wrong, and he’d fix it.
What if he couldn’t?
The door to the apartment opened before he could complete the thought, his younger sister-in-law considering him with a seriousness that belied her age. She stepped out of the apartment and shut the door behind herself, crossing her arms over her chest, steadily watching him, no sign of the nervous girl he’d encountered weeks ago.
“I am not Zephyr’s sister by blood,” she began, her tone somber. “Our parents adopted me when I was young. I don’t remember much of my childhood before them, but I do remember when I came to this family, I was alone and I was scared.”
Alpha took her words in, trying to understand where she was going, slightly annoyed that she was keeping him from his wife.
“Zee took one look at me and decided she loved me,” Zenith recalled, her voice shaking with emotion. “She didn’t know me but she didn’t care. And since that day, she’s loved me. She snuck in my bed at night because she knew I was scared of sleeping alone. She talked to me for hours because she knew it made me feel good. She gave me all of her love even when I couldn’t love her back, and she saved me in more ways than she knows. I love our parents, but the only reason I am who I am today is because of my sister and her unconditional, endless love for me. That’s just who she is. That’s how she loves. And anyone she loves is the luckiest person on this earth.”
Alpha felt the rock get heavier on his chest with each word, the gravity of every word pulling on his insides. His respect for Zenith went up a notch. Anyone who protected someone so fiercely was admirable. That she was protecting her sister was even more so.
“She loves you,” Zenith said quietly in the space between them, tilting his world askew. “And she’ll kill me for telling you this, but she’s loved you for a very long time.”
‘You forgot me.’
Fuck.
She'd been a part of his life. Had he loved her once too? Had his dead heart felt something for her at a time he couldn't remember?
Zenith went on, unaware or uncaring of his turmoil. “How and when is her story to tell. The only reason she cooked up the entire scheme to marry you was so she could love you freely, as her heart desires, and maybe, just maybe, you would learn to love her in return.”
'My agenda was to make you love me.'
She'd told him that and he'd not believed her.
Something moved inside him. He rubbed at his chest again, trying to dislodge the weight Zenith's words got on him. The fact that Zephyr had gone to the drastic length to marry him just to love him was unfathomable. No one did anything without an ulterior motive. But if Zenith was to be believed, his wife had.
“She’s withering,” Zenith’s voice trembled, her eyes moistening with anger as she looked at him. “She’s been withering every day that you’ve pulled back from her. And I don’t know what you did, but she just went over the edge.”
What had he done? Alpha recalled the locker room for the hundredth time, trying to pinpoint where it all went wrong, and he still didn’t know. Had it been when he’d smeared her with the blood? When he’d finished coming on her? When he’d told her she shouldn’t have been there? He'd replayed it all in his mind a hundred times and he still didn't understand what exactly set her spiraling.
Zenith wasn’t finished. “She’s been in bed, depressed, and while she has her occasional mood swings, this one… it hurts me to see her like this. If you enter that door, do it only if you can make her feel better. You have one chance.” She took a step closer, pointing a finger at his face. “Because let’s get one thing clear, brother-in-law. I don’t care who you are, if you break her again, I will end you or die trying.”
He really fucking liked his sister-in-law. And at that moment, he was really glad Zephyr had someone like her in her corner. He didn’t think she could end him, but he appreciated the sentiment of violence. But he’d spent enough time lingering outside. It was time to find her.
“Where is she?” he asked her, pointedly looking at the door.
"Don't let the best thing that's happened to you slip away." Zenith took a step back and opened the door, giving him a small glare. “She's in the bedroom. Right door.”
Alpha braced himself, and entered, going straight to the door she indicated, not knowing what he’d find behind, but ready to battle for it.