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“I know that much. Greyson told me.”
“He’s pretty cool, isn’t he? He looks a little like Dad, Vivi.”
“Does he?”
“Yeah.” My mate sniffles. “A little.”
“But we can talk about him later,” the sister asserts, “Now explain things with you and Riley to me. Pretty please.”
“It’s too much to get into. I just need the rest of the week and then we’ll be able to move forward with the rest of the plan.”
I bristle. Plan?
“Is that gonna be how it goes?” Vivi asks. “The plan?”
“I … expect so, even though he’s acting weird.” Rikki sounds distraught.
What plan? My mind races to the warning that Graydon Blackwood gave me about witches doing shit behind your back. What’s this about? Was everything I was beginning to feel while my wolf locked me in wrong? Is this witch out to fuck me over? Again?
Alarm bells are ringing in my head.
I flex my jaw muscles, ready to push in and demand answers. But the pain of the notion keeps me rooted and listening instead. No. She saved my life. Everything she did boils down to how she feels about me.
“Does he want to end things?” the sister asks.
“I don’t even know. He’s acting weird.”
“Elaborate, Erica.”
My mate huffs. “It’s not gonna make much sense unless I explain the whole thing. He’s just outside talking on the phone.”
“Just give me the gist, then. Maybe I can help you figure it out.”
“He was furious. He hated me. We got stuck together because his knot was in me and wouldn’t go down. We’re also talking kidnappings, shootings, murders, getting stuck, and so much more. I can’t get into it. He could come back in any second and there’s a lot that’s happened.”
“Has he heard your side of things?”
“It… yeah… But it took a lot to even get him to listen. And then he… it was like he wanted to crawl out of his skin. And Scoob… his wolf locked him out after that, which isn’t supposed to happen, but it did because he was so screwed up because of me, fighting the mating instincts because he hates me so much. Things were bad. Like, really bad. The shit I did to him split him into pieces of his old self. It was horrible to watch. But then other things happened and he’s back in his own skin properly I guess and now he’s not acting like he hates me and I… I won’t get hopeful, you know? Hope is dangerous.”
“Hope’s not dangerous, sis. Aunt Mimi wants me to ask if you’ve mated with him, but you just said his knot was stuck, so that answers that.”
“Yeah, but it was just biology. His urges. Instinct. I don’t want to read it wrong. I’m sure in a couple days when the week is up he’s gonna want the severing. And maybe he’ll have forgiven me enough to buy me some good juju for that other situation coming up this fall. At least I hope he will.”
“He might not want a severing.”
“I mean, how could he not, though? That’s been my plan all along. Explain. Apologize. And then let him finally move on with his life. ”
Pain slashes through me as I hear her sniffle before continuing, the pain in her heart worming its way through mine.
“But then he purred for me and made love to me and now he’s mad at other people, not me, and…” Her voice is wistful. Dreamy.
“Other people?”
“The people who chose this punishment. I’m… gotta admit, I’m confused, Vivi.”
“Of course he’s mad at the people who doled out that punishment. It was a bullshit punishment, Erica. We’ve all said that for years. Except you. We wanted to help you find a way out because it was so harsh and there you were… so broken up about it. You just took it and frankly, you shouldn’t have. It broke you. You might have broken some rules, but you didn’t deserve that.”
Her emotions are pulsing toward me in a way that has me wanting to rip the door down and purr for her. But I need to hear the rest of this. Gain some more insight. Her plan is to let me go. But she doesn’t want it. She’s sure I’ll want it.
“I had no choice, and you know it.”
“I do know it, baby sister. You sacrificed everything for the greater good. And you’d keep doing it, too, because that’s who you are. I also know you’ve beat yourself up too hard instead of realizing how harsh and unnecessary it was. Drinking that wine was an easy mistake any of us could’ve made. Any of us! The wine plus your heartbreak was the cause, but what happened after… it didn’t need to go that way. They didn’t need to punish you so severely. Didn’t need to punish him that harshly either. I’m not surprised he’s pissed at them. In fact, I’d be surprised if he wasn’t. Of course he was angry that you were alive and hiding for all that time. Now he knows why and now you two can move forward. Forget the severing plan, I’d lay money down it won’t happen. Your biggest ambition with that spelled wine wasn’t to get rich, take over the world, or anything other than to have true love, Erica. God, think about it and realize you’re not the bad guy here.”
