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“My point! My point!” She was laughing so hard she could barely speak. “My point is I only want my lumberjack with the tree dick, but I call it like I see it! That doesn’t mean I want to fuck his brothers!”
“Good, because one of those brothers is my husband,” I retorted. There was a little more jealousy in my voice than I had any right to feel. “I don’t know for how long if we get…”
I swallowed hard. Divorced. Good Lord, just say the damn word. Even just the word hurt my heart to think about.
“What happened with you two, Ginny?” she asked. All hints of fun and games were gone from her soft voice. “I know what people around town say—”
“He never hurt me,” I cut in. I didn’t want her to think that about him. “Other than ripping my heart out and shredding it, he never hurt me. He never laid a hand on me. He wouldn’t… he’s just… that’s not him.”
His recent love for fighting did nothing to dispel that notion.
“Then what happened?” Raven pressed. “Why would your father say those things? And you…”
“Let him?” I finished for her. Yeah, I let my father destroy my husband. I knew what kind of wife I was. “I couldn’t say… you wouldn’t understand. We all don’t have families built in love. My father believes in discipline and structure and order… and obedience. It doesn’t mean he’s any less my dad than yours is. I just… it’s just… I know I should’ve said something! I should’ve… done something. Maybe if I’d done something then maybe… maybe… maybe…”
My voice cracked as memories of the worst moments of my life threatened to implode in my chest and take out what was left of my heart. Raven slipped her arms around my shoulders and dragged me in for a hug. That tightness in the way she held me didn’t help. I needed it, but it didn’t help as I clung to her and mentally tried to piece myself together all over again.
“You’re mine. No one hurts what’s mine.”
Except… what if what was hurting me was his presence in my life again? And all the memories I’d carefully put away so I didn’t have to deal with them ever again?
How would he handle that?
Chapter 40
Killian
Had I resorted to stalking my wife again?
Yes, I had.
Did I feel guilty about it?
Only a little—but not enough to make me stop.
Besides, it wasn’t like I followed her. I simply stood along the side of the pack house and used my wolf hearing to keep tabs on her conversation with Raven once I realized they’d gone inside.
I’d caught the tail end of Genevieve crying. Every sob shredded another piece of my heart. Fuck, I never should’ve confronted her fucking dad. Eventually—and I had no idea how—Raven had her laughing so hard she was wheezing. The sound made my dick uncomfortably hard against my zipper. I loved Genevieve’s laugh. Nothing compared to it.
I dropped my damn near-dead cigarette to the grass and squashed it. As I did, I pulled out a third one. Yeah, I was fucking chain-smoking to deal with my stress. Between Genevieve’s father and the fucking puppy squad, I was tapped out. My brothers circled like the fucking pack animals they were, keeping a close eye on me as I took a few moments alone. Delcan worked his magic with the pack, intercepting conversations on my behalf and charming the hell out of everyone who came our direction. Lucas and Finn animatedly held off people in tandem, regaling anyone who’d listen with stories from the Fall Games. Nolan stood close to Lucas—some things never changed—and chimed in where applicable. Sam hung around on the porch in wolf form with his ears twitching as he silently kept watch. He worried me. How long would he stay in form this time?
I appreciated them but fuck. I had to get my shit together and just deal with it. All of it. But I felt fucking stuck—my feet trapped in proverbial quicksand. Anxiety had a fucking vice grip on my chest when I thought too much about everything.
“Stalker!” Maverick shouted when he saw me. Despite the drive, the man had clearly never left vacation mode from the looks of his sweatpants, wrinkled t-shirt, and slippers—fucking slippers.
“Douchebag!” I grinned as he joined me. “You’re looking comfortable as shit.”
“I made Axel drive.” He chuckled and grabbed my cigarette to take a long drag before handing it back. “I took a fucking nap.”
“I want a fucking nap,” I grumbled. “Drive go okay?”
“Besides Alice fucking with him from her bike as he drove… yeah.”
“What the fuck did she do now?”
“Well—” Shouting cut him off. Alice stormed across the lawn, screaming her head off, with Cole right behind her in an attempt to stop her. Axel met her ferocity in a downright volatile way. Declan stepped in to try to mediate, but all he managed to do was catch Alice around the waist when she took a swing at Axel. He hauled her off her feet and walked her tiny, shrieking self away while Cole told off Axel. What the hell happened? Props to my brother because that bitch flailed like a fucking fish out of water. “God, they’re going to fucking kill each other.”
“Eh.” Maverick shrugged. He was completely unfazed by the whole thing. “They just need access to a bathroom.”
