AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Stop.” Halle steps between me and her mate, her hands pressed against Cade’s chest. I shouldn’t antagonize him, not when I want a favor from him, but the insinuation that Halle needs to be protected from me is enough to fan the flames of my rage.
“Both of you calm down,” she orders. “Jackson is not going to hurt me,” she says, turning to look over her shoulder at me. “Right?”
I don’t take my eyes off Cade, and his remain locked on mine. I can feel Dove press in close behind me, her hand wrapping around my bicep to calm me down the way Halle is trying to do to Cade.
My protective senses are in overdrive right now, and my wolf agrees. He is ready to fight every single person in this room if they so much as look in Dove’s direction. My wolf has always been dangerous, difficult to control, and a little unhinged. Vargr are naturally built that way, especially when it comes to their mates, but my pack brothers are wary of me because of my history. I’m not sure why I turned feral, though I now suspect it had something to do with Dove, but Cade knows how dangerous I am when I'm out of control.
Does he think I’m going to regress? Lose my mind again?
I have too much at stake now to allow myself to descend into madness.
“Your anger issues are absolutely breathtakingly scary,” Sawyer says, his tone light.
“Don’t fucking test me,” I warn, resisting the urge to smash his teeth down his throat.
Sawyer holds his hands up defensively, but he doesn’t step back and retreat. If anything, his stance becomes harder, even if his face remains smiling. I recognize it for what it is. It is the look a predator gives an unsuspecting prey before it tears its throat out, and I have no doubt he would do it to protect his brother.
I was always the outsider in our pack. Cade, Sawyer, and Wyatt are connected by blood, and I could never compete with that.
“Or what?” Sawyer steps up to me, swapping his jovial mask for a more dangerous one. “You’re just one beat away from completely losing your shit, aren’t you?”
Surprisingly, it’s Cade who pulls his brother back, despite the fact that he wanted to punch me less than three seconds ago.
When his eyes come to mine, some of the hardness morphs into something softer. “You turned the pack link back off.”
It’s not a question. He knows I did. I’d opened it long enough to get help last night, but as soon as I crawled into bed, I turned it off.
“I don’t see the point in keeping it on.”
His jaw tics, and I know he’s pissed. If I were anyone else, he would probably have me on the ground by now, his hand around my throat. “We’re not your enemy,” he tells me.
There is no humor in the smile I give him. I don’t think any of this is a laughing matter. “Aren’t you?”
“Jackson… Stop.” Dove’s voice has me glancing over my shoulder at her. There is sadness in her eyes, and for a moment I get lost in her gray orbs. Gray, no longer milky white. “Let Halle through.”
Every instinct in my body rejects this, but she asks so sweetly, her eyes imploring me to trust her, that I step aside.
Halle moves around her mate and Sawyer, coming to stand in front of Dove. It takes all of my strength to give in to her demand.
Tears brim in Halle’s eyes as she scans Dove’s face. Her fingers curl around her biceps, as if trying to assure herself that Dove is real and standing in front of her.
“I’m so sorry,” she sobs the words, choking as she does.
Cade’s face contorts at her torment, but he doesn’t intervene.
“I thought I knew better. I thought we could repair you, but it was arrogance. Stupidity. You didn’t need fixing.” Tears stream down her cheeks, leaving silvery tracks on her skin. “I’m so sorry, and I’ll spend the rest of my days making it up to you.”
Everyone in the room seems to be holding their breath while waiting for Dove to speak.
“I know you are. A better person would forgive you and the other girls for what you did. I know it came from a good place, but you have no idea what it cost me. Weeks of my life trapped inside my body, not knowing if I was ever going to break free.” Her gaze shifts to mine, and I feel the weight of her stare. “It nearly cost me everything. I need time.”
I scrub a hand over my jaw, feeling the weight of everything pressing down on my shoulders. It was never meant to be this way.
“This apology isn’t just Halle’s to give,” Roux says, stepping up behind Halle. “We all owe it to you. There’s no excuse or platitude I can give that will make it better, and no one here expects your forgiveness, but we will never stop trying to make it up to you.”
“I appreciate that.” Her eyes slide back to Cade. “The first way you can do that is by joining Jackson and me together.”
Cade suddenly looks at me, and I’m not sure what he’s feeling as he narrows his eyes. “Why do you need me?”
