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“I don’t deserve it.”
“You do, I promise. You need to forgive yourself for what you’ve done, really own up to all the bad things, and then let go and move on.”
“I’m not ready for that yet.” She’d done a lot of terrible things in the name of being anti-shifter. When she’d put the sweater on, he kissed her cheek.
“You will be at some point. That kind of self-forgiveness takes time, trust me.”
Relief filled her. Remarkably, Romeo didn’t hate her. He hadn’t rushed her from the house when she’d told him who she worked for and what she’d done.
After they were dressed, they moved to the family room, where the gas fireplace lit up the room with an amber glow since the blinds were drawn and the afternoon sunlight had disappeared behind clouds. He left her on the couch and went into the kitchen, and as she listened to him opening cabinets and drawers, she stared at the flames.
What was she going to do about Brent?
Romeo joined her a few minutes later with a bag of white cheddar crackers and two bottles of sports drink.
“I like both flavors,” Romeo said, lifting the red and yellow bottles. “You can have either and I won’t mind.”
She looked at the flavors: fruit punch and lemon-lime, choosing the yellow one. Opening the lid, she took a long drink and sighed.
“Thank you.”
“You bet.”
“I think you said there’s something you need to tell me?”
“Yeah.” He turned sideways on the couch to face her and she mimicked him after putting the drink on the table and grabbing a handful of crackers.
“So you’re not who you think you are, and neither was your sister. What happened to her was a tragedy, but it’s not what you think.”
ChapterSeventeen
The story Romeo had to share started simply enough, five years earlier, when Kerry had been walking home from her job and detoured through a park that happened to be part of a wolf pack’s territory. A few wolves had been out for a run and weren’t supposed to get near humans in their shifts, on order from their alpha. One male scented that Kerry was his truemate and shifted to human, running to catch up to her.
But there was a female in the pack who had wanted him for herself and was incensed that he’d choose a human female as his mate. She stayed in her shift and raced to the couple, pulling the human female away from the male and tearing out her throat.
“What?” Ashley asked, her mouth open and her eyes wide. “What?! Kerry had a mate?”
Romeo winced at the high tone of her voice as she nearly screeched. “It’s true, Ashley. And it turns out Kerry was half wolf.”
“That’s impossible.” She threw the handful of crackers on the coffee table and stood. “No. Just…no!”
He let her pace for a few moments to let things sink in.
“I know you don’t believe me, but I promise that I’m telling you the truth. There was something off about what you told me about the aftermath of Kerry’s death. No alpha would allow any of his wolves to kill a human and get away with it, and the slap-on-the-wrist you told me about seemed off with what I know of their people. I did find a few articles that had been deleted but were on the dark web, which were made from the original police report. The articles and the police report—what you were told—was a tale of a wolf male who was out of control and attacked a human. That was based on the human police’s initial investigation at the scene.”
“Yes, that’s what happened,” Ashley insisted.
“No, sweetheart. The alpha, and a supernatural investigative unit within the local police, investigated and discovered the truth—that the female had attacked Kerry in a fit of jealousy and the male wolf inadvertently took the blame. Hedidblame himself. In fact, he confessed to killing Kerry because he wasn’t able to protect her from the she-wolf.”
Ashley sank down on the end of the couch, her eyes wide with disbelief mixed with grief. “Duncan. His name was Duncan.”
Romeo nodded. “He was the only child of a couple from a Los Angeles pack. The she-wolf’s name is Reba, and she was after him for a few years, but he wanted to wait for his truemate. He was so surprised to find his mate in Kerry that he was wholly focused on her and didn’t see Reba racing for her. She struck before he could react, and Kerry was dead moments later.”
“Why didn’t anyone tell me?” she asked.
“I spoke to Alpha Skinner. He told me that your parents were informed of the truth of the investigation, but he didn’t know if you were told or not. The records were closed and sealed because it was considered a pack matter.”
“Did the alpha do anything about what the she-wolf had done?”
