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"Do you remember when we used to spend hours in your room cutting up National Geographic magazines and pasting animal heads onto other animals to create our own animals?" I laugh, because those moments were some of the best of my life.
"Yeah, I think my favorite was the monkey body and the lizard head. What did you call that again? Monzard?"
She snorts. "Mizard! I thought it was genius."
We both laugh at the memory, which feels good. There were many years when all I hoped for was to spend more time with her doing the things children do. The moment stretches, though it doesn't take long for my mind to start to race. Paige has traced my tattoos all the way down my arm to the one on my hand. Her finger lightly follows the water heart that lives there—my favorite tattoo.
"What do you want to do?" I know she has been wanting to ask that all day. After we spoke to Isaac, she gave me space to mull things over. We played with Maddie and ended up eating at Eli's place for supper, but I knew she was worried about me, which made me even more attracted to her, which I didn't think was possible. After supper, we came back to my bedroom, and we were both occupied with each other's bodies to think about what Isaac had said, but lying here with her in my arms, it was inevitable she would ask what I thought about what happened today. I sigh and squeeze her tightly with my left arm.
"Honestly, I don't know. My mind can't stop racing, though. Dad wasn't really engaged when I was a kid, but the closer I got to the age of maturity, the harsher he got. I don't want my little brother to go through that. Not to mention, this poor woman was forced to marry my dad. Like, what the hell. I didn't think even our old pack did that."
Paige buries her face a bit more into my chest; she seems nervous all of a sudden, or maybe ashamed.
"It's very real. It's why Thorn got me out of the pack so quickly. The old Alpha had no problem forcing young women to marry someone they didn't want to."
My brain comes to a screeching halt, tipping her head up to look at me I see the sadness in her eyes. "Do you want to talk about it?"
She closes her eyes and breathes deeply; likely, my scent is helping to calm her down. Finally, she opens her eyes and looks at me.
"It was two weeks before my eighteenth birthday when Mom and Dad told me I would be married to Mic. I told them no, but they told me I didn't have a choice. I called Thorn and told him what they told me, and he said he would be there. He showed up a couple of days later. He packed me up and loaded my stuff into his vehicle, and we left. My parents were at a pack meeting, so they didn't have a clue I was running away. Thorn took care of me after that. Put me up in an apartment and got me into school. I still can't believe that Mic is actually the Alpha of the pack now." She shivers at the thought and tucks herself closer to me.
I never liked her parents. They were horrible pack members, using anyone they could to get ahead, and I saw how they treated Paige. It was sickening. But marrying her off to Mic. That guy is the worst of the worst. He played and fought dirty. He took everything to the extreme. I'm not surprised he started a fighting pit as Alpha; his love for violence was well-known in the pack. My stomach turns with the thought of him ever touching my sunshine. "I'm so sorry, Paige."
She shrugs, no doubt trying to prove that it wasn't one of the scariest moments of her childhood, to be told she didn't have a choice about who her mate was going to be.
"I left shortly after turning eighteen, not too long before your birthday, actually. I couldn't take it anymore. Dad and I fought one night over my challenge for the beta position. He thought I should rise in the ranks, which, as he put it, he was training me for. I had had enough. I was done being pushed around, and when I told him I didn't want to, he fought back; he threw the first punch, but what he didn't expect was for me to throw the last. He was nearly unconscious on the ground when I told him I was done and that he better not come looking for me. I never heard from him after that, and I came here. I'm sorry I wasn't around to, I don't know, help. I'm sorry, Paige." Paige looks up at me now, eyes lined with unshed tears.
"No, no, it's not your fault, Liam. That pack is messed up. There was nothing you could have done, anyway. It would have been the pack against you or me. Leaving was the best and safest option for both of us. Seluna knew that and saved us both."
"I'm still so sorry I treated you so badly, Paige."
"Liam, I told you, I forgive you. Being abused and coerced to participate in the pack's toxic behavior isn't something you could have stopped when you were thirteen."
"You're right, but I could have done something when I was strong enough, and I was strong enough after a couple of years; it was fear holding me back. I want to take responsibility for what I did, Paige. There may have been pressure, but I should have fought back."
She slides her hand along my cheek and leans up to kiss my lips. The bond pulls and reminds me how happy I am to have her by my side.
"It's alright. My therapist says we have to let go of the things we can't control in order to live in a happy present. I'm happy we are getting to know each other again, Liam. But please be with me here in the present; we can't change the past, we can only change the future." Her kind words make a lump form in my throat. I slide my hand behind her neck and kiss her with as much passion and emotion as I can manage. She has no idea what she does to me. She is quickly becoming my everything, my world.
"I promise you won't regret taking a chance on me." I peck her lips lightly.
"I know." She lays her head back down on top of my chest and resumes tracing the tattoo on my hand.
"I'm going to go and see my brother. Maybe talk to my dad's mate. If she wants to get away, I'll help her move. I need to offer as much assistance as I can. If nothing else, I want to be in his life. He deserves to have someone stable in his life."
Without hesitation, Paige speaks up. "I'm going too."
"Paige, you don't have to. This is my problem. I can do it on my own. Besides, I don't want to force you to go back to that hell of a pack."
"You're not forcing me. I want to go, to be there for you. I'm going. I'm pretty stubborn, by the way, so you can't change my mind." I smile at her and kiss the top of her head. How did I get so lucky? Moments pass, and I am slowly falling asleep; Paige must be, too, because her tracing has slowed down.
"Liam?" she whispers.
"Hmm." Sleep is trying to claim me, so a 'hmm' is all I can muster.
"What's the tattoo on your hand for?" Stirring a little, I open my eyes to look at Paige, who has turned to watch me. I wonder what she'll think when she finds out.
"The heart?" She nods her head. I knew it was the heart; she had been tracing it for almost an hour. "I got it to remind me of you."
