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“That doesn’t change the fact that it should have been done already,” I hiss across the bond with my wolf.
“Enough of the crying,” Topher says, slamming his hand down onto the table. Maia gasps, and I lift her from her chair into my own, letting my body heat and our shared sparks soothe her.
“Good,” Kane says. “Kiss mate, hug mate, love mate. But do not lose control, human.”
“Are you okay?” Maia whispers, her warm breath tickling my ear, and I nod. I press a delicate kiss to her forehead and glare at my mother for being so pathetic.
The crocodile tears have stopped, and she wipes her eyes delicately as she moves out of Charles’s embrace. It’s laughable how quickly she changes her tune. “Your cousin?—”
“Your nephew. My pup’s father. My mate’s… something. We don’t need to be reminded of the familial connection. Not when we know what he did and who he is. What we do need to know, though, Mumsy, is what you have done,” Ben interjects, sounding more stern than usual. I can hear the emphasis in his words, and I know he’s fighting Fluffy for control.
Unlike the rest of us, Ben didn’t get the chance to unleash his fury earlier. He’s sitting here with pent-up energy and a need to prove himself as worthy of being an alpha alongside us.
Maia doesn’t say anything about Ben’s flippant comment regarding her dead fiancé, but I can feel her tense up in my lap as he utters it.
The thing is, she can feel Ben just as much as I can, and he’s not feeling very angry about Ryan’s existence. Ben, like me and the rest of my brother’s, are coming to an understanding regarding our little dead cousin.
I massage Maia’s lower back as gently as I can, trying to soothe her with my touch. My family is fucked-up, and I won’t allow their taint to touch my mate and child.
“Neither of us will,” Kane promises me.
“I understand his connection to this family,” Julie says, shaking her head as she gives my brother a look full of sympathy. She’s acting as if he’s a fool, as if she’s better than him.
I am better than him. But she certainly is not.
“Anything I did was to protect our line, to protect the Wolfe’s from… from them and their poison,” she says desperately. “They were going to hurt us, and he was the leader of that. I did what I could—what anyone would.”
“She speaks for us all when she talks about these plans,” George adds. His words are gravelly, his tone almost reluctant. But he’s desperate to get that edge over Topher.
“Pathetic,” Kane and I utter together.
“We knew about your mother’s plan, boys. She wasn’t working alone on this,” Charles says, and Maia flinches, seeking more comfort from me. I press a soft kiss to the top of her head, annoyed that I can’t do more.
My heart is pounding in time with the way my veins burn with my fury. I’m scared to let go of my mate, to stop touching her. These sparks that occur when we touch are one of the only things keeping me sane right now.
I want vengeance, I want to fix Maia’s hurt, I need to fix her upset.
“There’s nothing that you can fix, human,” Kane warns, but it's a futile thing. I might not be able to bring him back for her—and even if I could, I’m not sure if I would—but I can send his killers out to go join him.
“No.” Kane doesn’t expand, but honestly, he doesn’t need to.
“If I can show her how far I’m willing to go in her defence, she’ll understand the depth of my love,” I argue. “She doesn’t yet have the bond with me that she does with my brother’s, but with this act, she’ll understand.” I kiss Maia’s neck, the softness causing beautiful goosebumps to appear across her skin.
“If I go this far… she’ll not believe that we knew about this plot.”
“She doesn’t already,” Kane soothes. “She has never once insinuated that over the last month. Whenever the topic has come up, she’s never once doubted us. She’s perfect, human, and she absolutely trusts us.”
“But that was before she heard it out of my parent’s mouths,” I protest. I lean down to kiss Maia again, needing to remind myself that she’s here, that she’s safe, that she likes my touch, that she loves me. “I can’t lose her, Kane.”
“You won’t.”
My dad leans in across the table as if he’s going to touch Maia. I snarl loudly, and Maia leans further into my touch and out of his grasp. With her left hand, she reaches for mine and squeezes so gently.
She’s so fragile, so delicate, and yet, she offers me comfort.
I’m not worthy of this love.
“Because she is perfect,” Kane says, enunciating each word. “And you are worthy of it, Seb. I understand the urge to hunt, to kill, to shed blood in our mate’s defence. I feel it, too. But she doesn’t need bloodshed. She needs answers, and we’re going to sit here and make sure she gets them.”
