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“He played his guitar for me,” I said. “And I happen to have liked his singing, thank you very much.”
“Well, then that was true love, for sure,” he said, with a smile in his voice.
Then he hugged me a little closer, wrapping me up tightly in his arms. I leaned my head against his chest, feeling tired and undone and sad, and safe to be all those things.
He added quietly, “He was so happy with you, Amelia.”
I’d pushed down the tears until I couldn’t cry anymore, but now I felt hot tears building behind my eyes.
Shaw swiped his hand over his eyes, and something broke inside me.
For the first time in years, tears spilled onto my cheeks. I was so used to trying to hide my tears from Nathan that the feeling made me panicked, but when I tried to pull away, Shaw just pulled me into his arms and hugged me tightly.
I clung to Shaw, surprised to find myself crying harder as he hugged me tightly. He didn’t tell me everything was going to be okay. He just held me while I cried.
“I didn’t betray him,” I managed between sobs. “I’ve spent all these years trying to figure out who did.”
I didn’t dare mention the names of the possible traitors. Stone might kill Lawson and Aiden, and I couldn’t trust what Shaw might do either. Not yet.
“I know,” Shaw said. “I believe you.”
He tilted my chin up so that our eyes met, as if he wanted to be sure I really heard him.
“You were the best thing that ever happened to Brennan. Don’t let anyone make you feel like you were the worst.”
He waited until I’d stopped crying then the two of us walked down the mountain back to the house together. We were both rung out and exhausted, and we didn’t talk.
But Shaw’s words sang in my heart.
CHAPTER32
Amelia
The next day,Shaw, Karissa and I had breakfast together. Dylan barely ate before he ran off to the toys. The sound of a little boy pretending to be a firetruck rose in the air because, of course, a Lego firetruck had appeared.
“Come back,” I called, picking up his peanut butter toast, which had two bites taken from it. “You barely ate your toast!”
“I don’t like peanut butter toast!” he called back. “You can eat it!”
“You loved peanut butter toast a week ago, but fine,” I muttered. “And I don’t eat peanut butter toast. I’m a grown up.”
Shaw leaned over and took a bite out of the toast. He raised those mischievous blue eyes to mine as he straightened, still chewing.
“Great,” Karissa said. “You’ve got one of my brothers eating out of your hand, at least. Can you tame the rest of them?”
“Doubtful,” I said lightly, although her words made me feel a sudden nervous itch I couldn’t explain. “Where are they all, anyway? Wouldn’t they normally be here for breakfast?”
“You never outgrow peanut butter toast,” Shaw observed, before taking a long sip of his coffee.
“You’ve never outgrown anything,” Karissa said with a roll of her eyes. Then she finally returned to my question, looking a little embarrassed on her brothers’ behalf. “Yes, they would normally. But Stone’s been obsessed lately with…” she trailed off as if she didn’t want to mention Nathan or the Longroad pack.
“And Liam’s been wolfed out full-time,” Shaw said. “Like his nightmares have been worse.”
“Nightmares?” I asked.
Karissa shot Shaw a warning look, as if she didn’t approve of him talking to me about their weaknesses. But Shaw just blinked innocently back at her as if he was pretending not to understand.
Karissa sought to clarify—there was a thump under the table as she kicked Shaw—but Shaw was already talking. “Liam’s had nightmares ever since I can remember. Even before he was sent to the Longroad pack.”
