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“I don’t… I don’t know. We haven’t talked about money yet. But it’ll be fine, there’s no way I’ll let mom—”
“It’s not just mom, it’s about the rest of us?”
“I… I don’t know yet.”
“You left them without knowing?” he asked.
“I h-had to. I told you, it—”
“It’s a fucking job, Drake. You do the job, you get paid. No one said it would be easy.”
“Just… listen to me. It wasn’t just the—”
“Years, we all put in to make sure you kept that academy scholarship. I got nothing, no help, no time, no nothing. And then you go and drop the Lightning pack without even telling us? This isn’t just about you, Drake. It’s fucking selfish.”
That had been the last time I’d seen him.
They’d come back. I knew they had. But I’d been a coward and I’d asked Ebony to deal with it. My mother had kept her place in the facility—I would never punish her—but I’d never seen them again.
And now that very pack who had once saved me… my brothers who I’d trusted… Well, we were the ones who’d done it to her.We’dfailedher, when she was fighting so hard.
“It’snother strength,” I whispered. Love didn’t get to strip that from her. “It’s her hope.” The thingwe’dbroken. “We have to fight as hard as she has, to give as much as she has, or how can she keep trying?”
THIRTEEN
ROOK
“I don’t haveanythingto say to you.”That’s what Drake said when I caught him grabbing food in the downstairs kitchen last night. I’d been hiding out there, unsure what to do with myself. Beside it was a small living area and TV where Rob usually spent time, and I didn’t want to risk Vex seeing me if she wasn’t ready. At least, that had been the plan, but as the hours went on, I was getting more and more unsure.
“Please just—” I began.
“I read the book.” Drake spun on me, shoving me in the chest. “You made her feel like nothing.”
“I didn’t… I mean… I know. But it wasn’t just me. What about Love and Ebony? We need to figure out how to—”
“Loveis sorry—”
“I’m sorry!”
“You don’t knowhowto be sorry!” Drake snarled. “And you know what? Out of all of us, you were the only one she compared to the pack who bonded her.”
Panic rose in my chest as he spoke the words I was scared of hearing. The ones I hadn’t been able to shake since I’d read them. But he didn’t get it. “Iamsorry! The moment she lets me—”
“I hope she doesn’t!”
“How can you be okay with the others, but—?”
“I trustherjudgement on Love.” Drake shoved me again. “I’m not okay with Ebony, but I don’t get it with you—you had no excuse Rook!”
“Drake!” I tried to tail him as he plated leftovers from the meal they’d made earlier, but he spun back on me. I’d never seen him like this. He was Drake. The quiet one, the kind one. Having him level his disgust on me like this, it was unsettling.
“And what about me?” he demanded. “Even if you couldn’t get your head out of your ass long enough to see her as more than a beta. You knew how I felt!”
“I know. I just… Tell me what Love did to get her to—”
“Love thought he was protecting her!” Drake slammed his fist onto the counter, aura splitting the air. “He was wrong, and he told her that, but what were you doing?”
“I didn’tknow—”
