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“Genevieve, you have to want it for you. Same as last time—”
“I’m tired of feeling awful, Killian,” she interrupted. That heated look in her eyes told me more than her words ever would. I gathered her legs and pulled them over mine to keep her close. “It worked once, it has to work again, right?”
“That’s the idea,” I said. “I want to move back home. I miss our house, and I’m fucking tired of living with the kitchen prince.”
She giggled, burying her face in her hands.
“You know it’s true,” I scoffed. The sound of her laughter was a pleasant distraction that I gave into for just a fucking moment because I knew the next words out of my mouth would gut her. I fucking hated that I had to. I squeezed her calves for comfort. “And, Genevieve, we need to take care of the rooms.”
She swallowed hard, her eyes widening and glassing over with tears as she shook her head.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No!” she repeated louder.
“Yes.” I held my tone, determined to not fight with her. Not about this. “We have to.”
“Please, no,” she whispered. “I don’t want to.”
“I know, princess,” I replied. “And I can take care of the hard shit, but you and I have to face what happened. And it starts in that house.”
Silent tears rolled down her cheeks, but she said nothing. I was right. She knew I was right. And I knew that she knew it. That was all that mattered.
“The last two things are pack things.” Another issue I didn’t want to fucking bring up, but I had to. “Your dad needs to be dealt with—on a pack level. Don’t fucking interrupt me because you’re getting ahead of me. I’m not the one who will deal with him. I can’t be. There’s too much shit there, and it’ll cause problems. But Mom is right. We’re a pack, we take care of our own, and we take care of our children. What your father did is inexcusable. I should’ve done something years ago. Maybe if I had… maybe shit would’ve been different. But Mom and the puppy squad are going to handle him. And I don’t need you to be okay with it, but I need you to let it happen. If there’s any fucking hope for us, you have to let it—”
“Okay,” Genevieve cut me off quietly.
“Okay?” I frowned. I expected more backlash. Walking away from him was one thing but talking about removing her father from the pack was a different one.
“I just… can they not tell people?” she asked. “About… you know.”
Fuck, my heart. That look on her face killed me. Wrapping a hand around the back of her neck, I pulled her close and pressed my lips to her forehead.
“You have nothing to be ashamed of, Genevieve,” I murmured against her skin. “You did nothing wrong.”
She nodded, but whether she believed me or not was a different fucking story to be tackled on another day. The plan was already to handle Phillip Goodwin as quietly as possible for the sake of Genevieve’s dignity. Mom was contacting the people in charge of placing pastors—whoever the fuck that was—to report his behavior, and my brothers had a plan, but I wasn’t allowed to know it.
“What’s the second thing?” Her voice pulled me out of my thoughts.
“I’m taking a leave of absence from the pack,” I told her. “Effective immediately until who knows when. I still plan to help with the hunter because I’m the only one who stands a fucking chance, but leading… I can’t focus on that right now. I need to take care of myself. And you. Eventually, we’ll have to figure out what the fuck me leading looks like for our marriage.”
“If that’s what you want.” She scooted closer, and I wrapped my arms around her.
What I wanted? Fuck, what I wanted had nothing to do with the pack. I wanted my life with Genevieve—a future with her. I didn’t give a fuck about anything else.
Chapter 84
Genevieve
Stop!” I exclaimed and slapped him on the shoulder, which only made him laugh harder. “It’s not that funny!”
We’d gone from sitting to sprawled out on our backs, nestled between mounds of blankets.
“It’s not funny!” I repeated, my voice rising a notch. Killian was laughing so hard he was nearly wheezing. “Ian!”
“I can’t fucking help it!” he said. He covered his face as he tried to control himself. “I find it fucking funny that the only other man you’ve kissed tried to lick your fucking tonsils. Who the fuck does that?”
