“I didn’t mean to,” he gasped, reaching for her, but I pulled her away from him and tucked her against my chest, her body completely limp in my arms. I watched as he swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat.
“She shouldn’t have rejected me,” he said, looking away and tossing the blame on her. I growled at him. Was that all he had to say? All he could think about after what she’d said?
“You selfish prick!” I told him, and his head whipped back to me while I glared daggers at him.
“She fucking rejected me! What else was I supposed to do?” he screamed at me.
“Not take her fucking choice! How could you? After what she just said! How the fuck could you believe Melana over her? You don’t deserve her.” I told him. He growled, stepping toward me, his eyes falling on her for a second, and he paused.
“Get out!” I told him. I was disgusted with him. He was just as bad as her teacher.
He didn’t move. “You don’t mean that. You are just angry,” Ace said.
“I fucking mean it! Get the fuck out of here before I ring Ryker and have him remove you.” I told him.
“She isn’t just your mate, Tyson.”
“You’re right. But I wonder what Ryker and Reika will say when they find out you forcefully marked her. She just told us she was nearly raped! And then you go and take her choice? You are just as vile as him!”
“I am nothing like him!” Ace screamed.
“No? Because taking her choice wasn’t something he did? You are right though, you aren’t like him. What you did was worse! Because she is our mate. Ours, Ace! Ours to keep safe! And you just showed her you don’t care for what she wants if it goes against what you want! Luckily she escaped him. But now she can’t escape you,” I told him before pushing my arms underneath her limp body and scooping her up.
“Get out. I don’t want you here when she wakes up.” I told him before stepping past him and heading back to my room. I kicked the door shut before placing her on the bed. I heard something break before the front door slammed as he left. Walking into the bathroom adjacent to my room, I wet a cloth before walking back out to her to clean her up, wiping the blood from her face and neck. She stirred but didn’t wake.
I opened the mindlink, searching for my brother. Ryker opened it, allowing it to connect.
“Busy Tyson, can’t talk now,” he said, about to cut the link off.
“It’s about Lucy,” I told him and hesitated before opening the link completely.
“What happened?”
“You need to get a hold of Avery and Aamon.”
“They won’t let her back in, Tyson. She blew her chances. I already tried,” Ryker told me.
“She is never going back. It has nothing to do with her wanting to go back to school, Ryker. Can you come over, please?” I asked him.
“I am in a meeting. It will have to wait.”
“Cancel it.”
“What’s going on?” he asked, and it became startlingly clear to me that not one person who was supposed to care for her had ever asked her why she did it. I felt like a fool for not questioning it myself. Not demanding an answer from her. Lucy would never endanger other people, her pranks had a limit. Yet, I never bothered to ask.
“Did you ever ask her? Did Reika ever ask her why she burned that classroom down?” I asked him, and he paused.
“Tyson, I know she has problems with the students, but that doesn’t give her the right to damage school property,” Ryker said.
“You may just change your mind on that. It was never anything to do with her not liking school. Just come over. I will explain.”
“Explain what? Nothing you say will change the fact that she burned down a classroom, Tyson. You always defend her actions instead of letting her own up to her mistakes. I will come to see you after work.”
“You know she was homeless, right? She was living in the forest until I found her yesterday. I thought she was at home until Rayan told me he had been sneaking out to see her. For once, just bloody do as I ask,” I told him.
“I thought she was staying at your house?” Ryker said.
“No. And you would have known if you hadn’t kept blocking us out. I only found out because I picked up Rayan from school.”