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Chia pet’s 5th day of life. Hair length: 3cm
Time until execution: 4 days.
DRAKE
“What’s that?” Rook asked, leaning against my door frame as I worked on the poster board plans I had for Vex’s nest.
“It’s uh…” I fumbled to cover it, but Rook was already striding into my room and peering at it.
“Damn… This for her?”
“I thought… maybe. If she wanted it. She gets final say of course, but—”
“She’s going to love it.” He squinted at the floor plan, grin bright. “You going to show her?Pleaselet me be there.”
“I can’t. I mean. Not yet.” I tugged it back, turning it over. “After.”
Rook was scowling at me. “I think you should—”
“What do you want?” I cut him off. “I’m busy.”
He ran his fingers through the tangles of black tumbling to his eyebrows, clearly trying to find his voice. “I’m sorry, Drake. I owe you an apology.”
I stared at him. “You… do?”
“I knew how you felt about her. I even saw you together, and I was…” He trailed off, shifting uncomfortably. “I was jealous, before I mean.”
“You were jealous?” I asked.
Ofme?
Rook had everything I had, just without the baggage. He was more popular, more amiable.
“She was into you, and I had to blackmail her to get time with her.”
“If you were jealous, then why didn’t you just… stop acting like a cunt, and—”
“Because I didn’t know—”
Anger rose like a flash flood, and I was on my feet, a snarl on my face. “If you say you didn’t know she was your mateonemore fucking—”
“No!” Rook raised his hands defensively, staggering back a pace. “I didn’t know Ilikedher!” He swallowed, expression twisting. “I’ve never wanted more with someone. I didn’t know what I was feeling when I saw her with you, smiling and shit when she hated me.” He’d opened the bond up, and I could feel his shame on full display. “I kicked off. It was just stupid and nasty, and there’s no excuse and you didn’t deserve it anymore than she did.” He rubbed his face vigorously, but I didn’t know what to say.
I still felt that twisting hatred in my gut when I thought of how she’d felt when she was here before the Gala.
“I just… I want us to be good, you know?” he asked. “Not just for her. I… I miss you.”
I swallowed through clenched teeth as I felt that blow. It was the part we’d never said out loud. Another casualty of all of this.
Love was… well, Love. Kinda quiet and odd, and just did his own thing. And Ebony was like a cold, ridiculously protective older brother. But Rook? He was a little slice of normal in this pack. We could just be friends and hang out.
But I hadn’t felt that since Vex had arrived.
I didn’t regret that; her arrival had shown me a side of Rook I didn’t like. But it would be a lie to say I didn’t want to find a way to get it back.
“I want to make it up to you,” Rook added into the silence. “And I’m sorry.”
“Yeh. You said that.”
