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Chapter
Five
Tori
“Tori Rose Winters!” Ellie screeched as she barreled into my apartment. She was all redheaded fury and glared up at me as she crossed her arms. “Care to tell me what the hell is going on? First you call Micah in the middle of the damn night over raccoons, and now you’re running through town. Are you having a mental breakdown?”
Her voice had softened for the last part but it didn’t really help.
“Those are not comparable,” I muttered as I closed the door behind her. She shrugged out of her coat and shook her head.
“Spill. You’re keeping shit from me. If you do, I’ll order takeout and wine.”
“Can you even drink again?”
“I’m not pregnant,” she said with an eyeroll. “Just because I said I wanted more babies didn’t mean there was a rush. Quit deflecting, brat.”
“So, you know the mate I ran from?”
I winced as she narrowed her eyes.
“You know I think you’re an idiot for that,” she said. Leave it to my sister to not hold back. Once she left that damned show, I swear she grew a spine of steel. The mates only helped build that confidence.
“I do,” I said with a sigh. “But can you blame me? Mates is an insane thing. Like here, meet this stranger and then commit to them without question…”
She didn’t argue this time as she watched me flop down on the couch. When her face went from frustrated to gentle, I knew it was about to get more serious and I wanted nothing to do with it.
“Is there something you’re not telling me?”
I gave her a look that said ‘I don’t want to talk about this’ but she didn’t relent. She squared her shoulders and shoved her hair in a messy bun, something she did anytime she was about to face something, be it emotional or physical.
“Tori. Stop running and tell me what the fuck is going on.”
“It’s just my preference. Why isn’t that enough for everyone?”
She raised her eyebrows at my tone. It was sharp and I didn’t usually get this worked up with them. My siblings were normally the exception to every rule.
I was giving myself away without even trying.
“That is enough, Tori,” Ellie said as she shifted closer to me on the couch. I hated that her eyes were full of compassion.
Why did everyone care so damn much?
“It would be if I thought that was all there is to this. If you want to keep it to yourself, that’s your right, I won’t push anymore,” she said with a defeated sigh. “I just don’t want you to regret this. You can take however long you need to get to know your mates, though, you don’t have to jump right into bed with them.”
She was right here, begging me to let her help me solve whatever problems I had. Yet I couldn’t make myself tell the secrets I’d kept to myself. The most I’d said to anyone was telling Felix I had bad experiences with alphas.
No one but me knew how deep they went.
Me and my father who didn’t care.
They would, though, that was the craziest part. Micah and Ellie know our parents and how they are, they’d be horrified, but would believe me without hesitation.
“I don’t want to talk about it and I don’t want to defend myself anymore,” I managed to say. “I have to go.”
“Okay,” Ellie said, giving me a quick hug and taking the hint. She gave me one last sad look before leaving.
Fuck. Now I felt like garbage. In the process of protecting myself, I was hurting my sister and pushing her away.
