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I can decide what’s best for me and right now, I want to know the truth.
* * *
Isneak into my room and shut the door behind me, waiting to pick up the sounds of my brothers in the big house. Nothing. The mansion is as silent as a graveyard.
Where is everyone? I move to my window and look outside. A few workers are in the garden, watering the flowers and weeding the area, but I don’t see any signs of my brothers. The garden belonged to my mother. She loved planting flowers and named the garden after herself.
After her death, my father didn’t abandon the garden. He continued to nurse it, the way my mother did. Five years later, it’s still standing. His act reveals how much he loves the mate he lost.
If only he can let me love Luke the same way. It’s impossible. He’s going to kill me if he learns the truth.
I move away from the window and strip, going into the bathroom to have a good scrub. Luke’s scent is drowned by the smell of my lavender soap, spinning with the bath water as it goes down the drain.
But thoughts of him occupy my mind, taunting me that I can’t control what I feel.He’s going to always be in your head. You’ll think about him every day, maybe blush a little, but he’ll never leave your mind, no matter how hard you kick against it, no matter how angry you are with him.
After my long shower, I go back to my room to get dressed. I wear a pair of black trousers first, then a black bra, standing in front of my mirror as I hook the cups on my breasts. Just staring at myself, I picture Luke touching me again, setting the pores of my skin ablaze. My mind is right. Luke has come to stay in my head forever.
I’m sliding my hands into the sleeves of my red top when I pick up the first sounds of my brothers. I hear Jake’s voice first. He walks past my door, speaking to someone in a clear tone of displeasure.
“No, we’re not going after Lanny’s pack. He’s a good friend!”
Someone grunts. “Oh, please.” It’s Lawrence. “He stole your woman. Isn’t that enough reason to slit his throat?”
Their voices fade as they move further down the hall. Slipping the red top over my head, I open my door and step out of my room. Lawrence and Jake are still talking. They’re in the foyer now. I wonder where Damian is.
“Jean married Lanny because she loves him. Who am I to choose the person she loves?” Jake answers.
“You’re a pussy, Jake,” Lawrence retorts. He laughs, a kooky laughter that resonates through the high ceilings. “You just can’t stand up to Lanny, can you?”
“It’s not that, Lawrence. I just have a bad feeling about this. We shouldn’t do this.”
“We should,” a new voice says. It’s Damian.
I creep towards the upper floor railing, ducking behind a shelf to avoid being seen. From here, I spot my brothers in the foyer, sitting on the padded armchairs there. Jake is by the window, twirling his watch on his wrist. Lawrence sits beside his younger brother, shaking a hip flask in one hand. Damian’s the only one standing. His back faces me, awarding me a view of the large skull on his leather jacket.
“This isn’t your business, Damian,” Jake says. “Don’t get involved.”
Damian breaks into laughter. His laugh is a billion times more sinister than Lawrence’s. Harsh, unpleasant, like fingers scraping a dry floorboard.
“I’m getting involved,” he tells Jake, jabbing a finger at him. “You know why I need to be there when you slaughter Lanny’s pack. That asshole sent his wolves to beat me up!”
I almost gasp, but intuitively, cover my mouth with a hand. Slaughter? Did Damian just say slaughter?
“He beat you up because you assaulted his wife, Jean!” Jake cries, slamming the wristwatch on the table beside him.
“I did it because of you, you ingrate!” Damian barks. “The woman ridiculed you by leaving you for Lanny.”
“It wasn’t your place to defend me! Jean made her choice.”
“Lawrence is right,” Damian spits. “You’re a pussy.”
Jake growls and tries to attack Damian, but Lawrence springs to his feet, stepping between them and stopping the fight before it even begins.
“Enough of this madness!” he bellows. “Are you going to fight and tear each other to shreds? Well, if you’re going to do that, don’t fucking spill blood on these chairs. I just got them.”
Jake withdraws, his burning gaze still fixed on Damian. I can’t see Damian’s reaction but I know it’s fiercer, madder. Lawrence watches them for a bit before he takes his seat back, chuckling.
“I guessed as much. You can’t tear each other to pieces. You’re still brothers.”
