“I’d like to talk to Cade for a moment,” I said, feeling nervous. He was a very intimidating person when he wanted to be and I felt the full force of his stare as he stopped and turned to face me.
Blake and Scarlett looked between the two of us as I held Cade’s eyes, trying to keep my nervousness hidden.
“Sure,” Blake said, giving me a kiss on the cheek. He gave Cade a look and Cade nodded at him.
Once everyone left, the silence was deafening. I took a deep breath and released it.
“I know you still don’t trust me,” I started to say. “Hell, I don’t blame you. If I were in your shoes I wouldn’t trust me either.”
He folded his arms across his chest as he continued to listen to me.
“But I wanted you to know how sorry I am that I betrayed all of you.”
My reasons for betraying them didn’t count; it didn’t make the betrayal any less hurtful. Cade sighed and rubbed his chin and he was about to say something, but I stopped him.
“Let me finish,” I stated. And he kept silent.
“I need you to know that, irrespective of what has happened, I would never do anything like that again.”
His eyes bore straight into my soul and I waited for a response from him.
“I know,” he said as he ran a hand through his hair. He was always so reserved around me, so seeing him like this was an eye opener.
“What you did to them was unforgivable,” he said, and I felt my heart sink at the fact that despite anything I said or did, nothing was going to change the fact that he wouldn’t be able to forgive me for betraying the people that he loved the most.
“But finding out about your mother makes me understand why you did what you did,” he added, and I held my breath. I felt a pain in my chest at the reminder of my mother, who was finally at peace, and I felt a sting of tears.
I felt a heaviness that had been on my shoulders lift and I smiled at him.
“I understand that you want to prove yourself worthy of the alpha title,” he told me. “But no more heroics, okay?”
I nodded and I wiped a tear that had slid down my cheek.
“What happened to you nearly crushed them and I don’t ever want to see them in that type of pain again,” he said, and I felt a pang of guilt. “Besides, you’re one of the bravest people I know and you don’t have to prove anything to anyone. What happened is in the past and it stays there.”
His words touched me and I tried to keep my emotions from bubbling to the surface.
“Okay,” I said hoarsely, and he smiled at me.
Cade left and when Blake walked in he looked at my tear-streaked faced with anger, but I gave him a reassuring smile.
“I’m fine.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Keri
Back in my room, I’d just had something to eat under the watchful eye of Blake. The truth was I didn’t really have much of an appetite. Thoughts of the situation we were in were foremost in my mind and that took any appetite I had away.
“You have to eat something,” Blake had ordered, giving me a determined look. I’d relented and tried to eat something even if it wasn’t much. He was right, I needed to eat to help fuel my body so it could heal itself properly.
Afterward he climbed onto my bed and held me in his arms. In a heavy silence, we clung to each other, lost in our own thoughts. I was scared. No matter which scenario I thought of or any plan I tried to put together to get us out of the mess, nothing that played out in my mind worked out the way I needed it to.
We were all facing our own mortality and I was scared that even with the best laid plan, someone was going to get hurt. After everything I’d been through I’d hoped that everything would have settled down into something that resembled boring normality, but it felt like just when I’d overcome one obstacle another one was taking its place.
“What are you thinking?” Blake asked softly, still holding me close. I loved the way he made me feel when he wrapped his strong arms around me. I felt safe and loved, things most people would have taken for granted but, for me, it was a new experience.
My life had been hard and brutal. Having Blake in my life and the love I felt for him was like a beacon of hope on a dark and stormy night. Without him I would have been a mess trying to figure out what our next move was, but with our connection, I’d managed to keep calm.
