“Compliments of Billie. She’d been waiting for you to try it.”
“Consider me properly chastised.”
“Good.”
After a few minutes of silence while she finished her meal, she groaned and pushed away the plate. “Okay, I ate. What’s the rest?”
“Simple. Antonio waited a fucking decade and had my entire family murdered while I was running in the woods with his Adonis. I was an orphan, and even though we knew what he’d done, the signature too obvious for us to deny it, my family’s murderer took me in like a man in his circumstances would do.”
Fabiana gasped, her hearty meal swirling heavy in her stomach. Raphael gave the details like it was nothing more than sharing the weather, but his eyes couldn’t lie. They darkened to a cobalt steel, a faint gold from his wolf shimmering around the pupil.
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s my story. We were kids at the time; I was seventeen and Adonis only fifteen. We weren’t strong enough to branch out on our own. We couldn’t get away and had nowhere to go. Adonis kept me alive, like I’d done for him when he was younger. He wouldn’t let me sink, wouldn’t let me fade away. He introduced me to Yanni, who helped forged me into a blade.”
“The same Yanni in this pack?”
Raphael nodded. “We all came together then. Piece by piece we saved, planned, and found a way to break free. Adonis gave me the best gift on the planet on my twenty-first birthday.”
“Raph,” Adonis barked.
Raphael ignored him, never looking away from Fabiana. “He gave me his family’s head on a platter. Every member who’d joined in on killing my family. Every brother of his who had planned to take his place in his father’s group and toss us out like garbage.”
“Raphael!”
Finally, Raphael looked to Adonis in the doorway. Blood coated his neck and his black shirt stuck to him.
“Adonis is a man who would do anything for family, Fabiana.Anythingwithin his power. You’re not much different than him. Two children, each with a sick fuck of a father, but you both broke free. His mother, Yanna, is hidden safely, never to be afraid again but far enough away from enemies her son may have.”
“Yanni and Yanna have very similar names.” Fabiana glanced back and forth between Adonis’s rigid form and Raphael’s relaxed one.
“They should. They’re brother and sister,” Adonis gritted out. “Why, Raphael?”
“Because she isn’t the only one hiding from her past, and it was the only way I could drag her from her lab. She worked nearly sixteen hours today with barely any water or food. And because,” Raphael continued, standing, “you never would have told her because you wouldn’t want her to pity me, so I saved you the trouble.”
“She didn’t need to know at all.”
“Hi, I’m right here.” Fabiana argued, waving her hand for emphasis.
“Adonis, you fight for everyone. No matter how tired you are, no matter how much it may hurt you. For once, for fuckingonce, I want someone to fight for you. Whenever I do, you chalk it up to bullshit obligation.Este soy yo haciendo cualquier cosa para ti, hermano.”
Fabiana raised her eyebrows as Raphael spoke Spanish because he hadn’t used it since she’d met him. Now, knowing his story, she was surprised she hadn’t heard it more.
“What does that mean?”
Raphael stalked to Adonis’s side and looked at him pointedly. “Yes, Alpha, what does it mean?”
“Here’s me doing anything for you, brother,” Adonis translated, returning Raph’s stare.
“You can punch me for it later, when you’re less angry. I’d like my jaw to stay intact.”
Raphael left, and the silence between Fabiana and her mate stretched as he stared away into nothing. Even when she stood, he didn’t react. Not knowing what else to do, she curled into his side, placing her hand across his heart and her head on his chest.
“This is now, Adonis. More real than your memories.”
He shifted, wrapping one arm around her to anchor her to his side. “I was eighteen when I killed my father,pequeña. I paid him back for everything he’d ever fucking done to my mother, me, and Raphael. I tried my best to destroy everything he built and swallow it as my own.”
She looked up at him and opened her mouth to speak, but he shook his head.
