Chapter 81
DEREK
I woke with the sour taste of whiskey still clinging to my tongue and sunlight stabbing through my eyelids like a punishment. My head was pounding. My mouth felt like cotton. And the dull throb behind my eyes wasn’t just from the hangover.
Cassandra’s bare shoulder was the first thing I saw when I turned my head.
I sat up fast. Too fast. The room tilted.
“What the hell…” I muttered, dragging a hand down my face. I was still wearing my watch. My pants were on the floor. My shirt was missing.
Cassandra stirred beside me, the covers slipping low on her back.
“Morning,” she said softly, sleepily, like this was normal. Like we did this all the time.
I felt sick.
“I don’t remember…” I started, and she smiled—soft and sad and understanding.
“You were drunk,” she said. “Heartbroken. I didn’t plan for this to happen either, Derek. But maybe…” She reached for my hand, her fingers delicate on my wrist. “Maybe it’s a sign. That it’s time we stop pretending.”
Pretending?
“Pretending what?” I asked.
“That we aren’t already tied together,” she said, her voice a whisper now. “You’ve always been there for me. Even when she wasn’t. Even when she left.”
Elena.
The name thundered through my chest like a war drum.
V4%
Chapter 81
I pulled my hand back. “I need a shower.”
+25 Bonus
She nodded, but there was a flicker of something else in her eyes. Triumph? Satisfaction?
No. I was imagining things. I had to be.
I didn’t remember going to my room. I didn’t remember taking off my clothes. I didn’t remember anything past the sixth drink.
But I remembered how it had felt to see Elena’s face twist in betrayal. I remembered the sound of her voice, cold and sharp as a blade: “Get out of my house. Stay away from my son.”
Aiden.
a
Goddess. I couldn’t figure out why the thought of never seeing the boy again took me out at the knees.
The shame hit me harder than the hangover. I walked into the bathroom, braced both hands on the marble counter, and stared at myself in the mirror. My eyes were bloodshot. My jaw tense.
I didn’t recognize the man I was turning into.
My father had been a strong leader–maybe the best that Silverclaw ever had. When he had become Alpha, Silverclaw had been a middling pack–with land and resources, but little power. He’d built the pack into what it was today: strong. Powerful. Unyielding.
And he’d done it all by being himself. He’d been protective and ambitious, yes, but he’d also been fair, stalwart. Loyal.
He had never–not once–given my mother, his fated mate, any reason to doubt his fidelity.
And while it was true that Elena had rejected me, even though she was with–engaged–to another man, I still felt as though I owed her my faithfulness.
Chapter 81
+25 Bonus
I looked into my own bloodshot eyes and had to accept that I might never live up to the standard my own father had set.
My fingers clenched the marble countertop and I swallowed hard, tasting bile.
After a quick shower and a change of clothes, I made my way down to the kitchen. My mother was already there, standing at the stove in one of her aprons, humming quietly as she prodded at something in a cast iron skillet. Bacon.
She looked up briefly when I entered.
“Coffee’s hot,” she said. “You look like hell.”
“Good morning to you too,” I muttered, grabbing a mug. I poured myself a cup and added nothing. I needed the bitterness.
We sat in silence for a minute.
“I can feel you thinking,” she finally said, using tongs to flip the bacon in her pan onto a paper–towel–lined plate.
“A dangerous pastime,” I said, and she smiled, reached back and removed the apron she was wearing, tossing it onto the countertop.
She held the plate of bacon out to me, and I took a piece, the grease hot on my fingers. I let
it burn.
My mother poured herself her own cup of coffee and the silence in the room stretched on.
Eventually, she sat down across from me, hands curling around her coffee mug like she was waiting for a storm to pass. Maybe she was.
“You’ve been thinking about your father,” she said quietly.
I nodded. How did she always know?
“I miss him,” I said. “But more than that… I keep asking myself what he would’ve done. With the summit. With the rogues. With…” I trailed off, unwilling to say her name. Elena
3/4
Chapter 81
lived too vividly in my head already.
Comments
Support
