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Blair doesn’t seem to be in the same kind of rush, though, and while I’d like to say it’s because he’s still holding Serena, I also know he doesn’t give a rat’s ass about standing naked, no matter who might be around. I’m not exactly shy about it myself. How can you be when it happens so often in our lives? Not to mention, when we were younger and didn’t have control, we ended up naked all the time. But it’s a little different around Serena, at least for me.
“I’m fine,” Serena tells him, trying to pry herself from his arms, but that only makes him hold her tighter. Heat rises on her cheeks as she’s pressed against his bare chest. If this were any other time, I would laugh, maybe even tease her. But it’s not, and I’m not sure how much more she can handle tonight, or how much any of us can, for that matter.
“Blair.”
Lyle’s voice seems to break Blair from his caveman tendencies. Blair glares at Lyle but says nothing. Instead, he lets Serena down, though judging by the look on his face, he would rather do anything but that.
The second her feet hit the floor, she’s gone, sprinting up the stairs so fast that she damn near trips over her own feet in her haste to get away.
I know she’s running so that she can deal with what just happened, to have a moment alone to think, but it still hurts, watching her run from us. I don’t even realize I’m moving to go after her until Lyle catches my arm to stop me.
“Give her a few,” he says, his jaw clenched as he forces the words out. I want to fight with him, even though I know he’s right. I hate the idea of her upstairs trying to sort through all of this alone. We’re supposed to be there for her, and these last few weeks, it feels like we’re falling short when she needs us most.
Before I can do or say anything, Pike and Storm are heading back down the stairs again. Pike tosses a pair of shorts to Blair, and he snatches them out of the air, pulling them on quickly. It’s probably for the best. If he’d gone up to get dressed, he might not have come back down, and it was either that or we do this whole thing with him naked, which I’d rather not do.
Lyle turns and heads toward the living room without a word. Blair and Pike follow, but Storm pauses a few steps from the bottom of the stairs, looking around before his head snaps up toward the library, and his brow pulls together.
“Come on, Storm,” I call, nodding after the others. He takes a second, but he follows, and together we make our way into the living room to join the others and go over the fucking shit show that is our life right now.
I’m not sure what we’re going to do, but whatever it is, we’ll figure it out. Failure isn’t an option, not when Serena is depending on us.
“How could you not tell us that your father threatened Serena?” Lyle seethes as we walk into the room.
Pike shrinks in on himself a bit, and I feel bad, I do, but Lyle isn’t wrong to be upset, and he’s not the only one.
“I was young, and I panicked. You know how he is. He’s done nothing but make my life hell for as long as I can remember.”
Lyle paces in front of the couch, where Pike and Blair sit. Storm and I sit on the other side, but none of them look our way as Pike nervously runs his hands through his hair.
“It wasn’t a big deal. Harlow is terrible, but at first, all it took to keep her happy was some attention and texts. It wasn’t until we hit high school that she became an issue. She always wanted more and more. She knew the deal, and she knew Serena’s safety was the only reason I was with her. It was something she loved to throw in my face…” he trails off, looking around the room at us, and I see the desperation in his eyes as he begs us to understand. “By the time I realized I was in too deep, I was ashamed to go to you guys. I knew my father would never love me, but I’d hoped. For so long, I hoped he would see reason, that maybe he would wake up and decide I was good enough. But more than that, I was afraid. What if I told you and something happened to Serena because of me, because I couldn’t just do what I was told?”
He looks down at his hands, ashamed.
“What if I was the reason she got hurt?” His voice is quiet, but I hear the pain in that one question. It’s a question we’ve all had to think about at one point or another. Something we worry about because of the power we have. We might be the strongest alphas, but extinct beasts or not, it doesn’t mean that nobody will ever try to challenge us. That’s what it means to be a powerful shifter, and with Serena being so close to us, it puts a target on her back.
“And you didn’t think sleeping with the girl who is responsible for Serena’s nightmares was hurting her?” Blair asks. The question’s blunt and harsh, but he doesn’t say it unkindly, more so like he’s genuinely curious about what he was thinking.
Pike cringes and hangs his head; he knows damn well the damage he’s done.
The question is why.
“I never wanted to hurt her.” He looks up, and I see the truth in his eyes as they fill with unshed tears. “You have to know that!” he pleads, and when he looks at me, I can’t help but give him a small nod because I do know that.
Serena is a part of us. The bond we share isn’t something that other people understand. In a world that's mostly divided by prey and predators, what we have isn’t common, but it’s the only way we know, and I wouldn’t change it for all the power in the world.
“It was stupid, but I thought—” his voice cracks, and he takes a deep breath before continuing. “I thought it was better to have her hate me and be safe.”
“But she doesn’t hate you,” Storm says matter-of-factly, making Pike’s head snap up.
Storm doesn’t give him a chance to question him, though.
“She doesn’t. You saw that tonight. She forgave you without hesitation, the same way she always does.”
Pike nods and, if possible, looks even more ashamed than he did a moment ago.
“I know. It doesn’t seem to matter to her how often I fuck up. She always forgives me… Even when I’m not sure I deserve it.”
“It’s not just you,” Blair tells him. “She forgives all of us too easily, she always has. It’s just who she is.”
