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“When?” I ask softly.
“When we tried to kick you out of the kitchen.” He turns to face me, and I move slightly closer so our knees brush together, and there’s the most minimal of sparks shooting between us.
“No, you didn’t hurt me. You shocked me, and I was very confused. I still am. You’d never hurt me. None of you would.”
“Not on purpose.” He sounds so surly, and it’s adorable.
“Not by accident.” I reach up and cup his cheeks, leaning in close to brush a soft kiss against his lips. I don’t deepen it, pulling away when he tries to, and I shake my head. “You’d cut out your own heart before you hurt me or Phoebe. Don’t ever think otherwise.”
“I’m hurt. Angry. I was…” He trails off, glaring at the lamp on my side table as if that’s the reason he’s so unhappy.
“Scared?” I murmur, leaning forward to touch his arm. He instead grabs me under the arms and tugs me into his lap, cuddling me in close. I wrap my arms around him as he breathes my scent in so deeply I’m almost scared to see what he’d sense. “It’s okay to feel scared, Seb.”
“I’m not scared,” he snaps. But his sharp tone is ignored in favour of the gentle kiss on my forehead. “My brothers and I have mourned her, we’ve spent years and years learning how to live in a world without her. We’ve struggled to find a new normal, to deal with the new enemies we have, the new pain and emptiness. We started to move on, started to heal piece by piece, and now… this.”
I reach my hands up, cupping his cheeks, my legs falling on either side of his thighs as I straddle him. “It’s okay to be angry at her, too, you know. You can be happy she’s alive whilst also hating the lengths she had to go to for it to be so.”
“How can I hate her?” His tone is full of despair as he pulls back to look at me properly. “However she survived, she did it because going with him, with the man her parents chose for her... it would’ve been a death sentence. She did what she had to do to protect herself, and I can’t ever be mad at that.”
I flinch, my eyes darting over to Phoebe to check she’s okay. It’s silly, since I know nothing could or would hurt her in this house, but knowing that there’s people out there—her biological family at that—who would want that life for her... I just need her close by.
I need to know she’s safe, and breathing, and happy. I need to know that the venom of this world can’t touch her.
“I know he’s older?—”
Seb shakes his head, his body tensing underneath me. “No, little love, it was more than the fact that he was practically a fucking pedophile. He was abusive, dangerous, and so fucking warped. He would have killed her within the first year.” Seb’s jaw hardens, and as my hands drop from his face, he looks at Phoebe with a hardness in his eyes that I’m not used to seeing from him. “I did what needed to be done, and I don’t regret it.”
“What do you mean?” My heart beat becomes erratic, my breaths fast, as I take in the confident but slightly unhinged version of my mate.
He gently cups my cheek, this time, reversing the roles as he presses a soft kiss to my nose. He’s so gentle, so soft and sweet.
But as he leans back, giving me a truly distant look, I’m awed at the vast differences in his personality. “I tracked him down on the first anniversary of Morgan’s death and killed him a few days before he could wed another teenage girl. I decided that scum like him doesn’t deserve to exist in the world that my cousin is no longer in.”
Bile rises in my throat, but I choke the acidic liquid back down as tears sting at my eyes. My heart is heavy, but not as heavy as his despair. “You... you saved someone else?”
He nods once and leans in closer. I can see the green flecks almost pulsating amongst the hazel iris, and there’s a hard expression on Seb’s face. I can feel the nerves pouring from him, despite his effort to contain them. “You’re not upset with me?”
I cringe. “Not really.”
I probably should be. I should probably be horrified.
But to me, what’s horrific is knowing a man that old was out there practically buying teenagers from their families and that said families were all too willing to hand over their extremely precious and rare daughters to scum like that.
That’s what disgusts me.
That is what will keep me up at night.
He snorts, and I blink in surprise as Kane takes over. “I told human you wouldn’t be. Seb has no self-confidence. He’s—” There’s a small shudder, and Seb’s lips flatten as he pleads with me to ignore the wolf within.
I giggle and hug him tight before the serious mood fills me once more. “So... you killed the man who was going to be wedded to your cousin.”
He nods. “Topher says she’s lived a good life in her hiding. I don’t want to ruin that. I don’t want to take away the thing she’s built all on her own.”
I brush his hair out of his eyes, a sad smile taking over. “You can’t ever ruin her life by being in it, Seb.”
His laugh is humourless as he attempts to return the favour and tuck my curls behind my ears. “I’m a terrible male. I’m too selfish to let you or Phoebe go, but unlike my brothers, I’m nothing but dark.”
I roll my eyes. “You’re sweet, and understanding, and kind-hearted?—”
