Page 54 of Possessive Mate

When she opened her eyes again, she met his gaze and wasted no more time. “Jason couldn’t handle the grief. He started going out drinking every night, getting into bar fights, looking for anyone he could to take on next.”

“Like I said before, he always was a bit of a tool,” Eddie scoffed, trying to make light of the situation. Elena gave him a half-smile, hoping it made him feel even slightly better. It didn’t do all that much for her.

“Yeah, well, eventually he picked a fight with the wrong wolf,” Elena said, grimacing. She remembered it all too well. “He challenged the alpha.”

Still, to this day, Elena had never been able to say the name of the man who had killed her mate.

“Malcolm?” Eddie gasped. Elena nodded even as the name made her quiver. “And that’s how he…”

Elena nodded again. Her throat constricted and she struggled to clear it before continuing, “Malcolm beat him to a pulp, but he let him live. He might have lived, too, if not for the grief. At least, that’s what the healers said. His body just shut down and he didn’t even start to heal.”

Again, she remembered it well. She had sat at his bedside for two days before he finally gave up.

“He died two days later in the pack infirmary.”

Eddie clutched her hand tightly then, leaning forward in his seat. Again, he said, “Elena, I am so sorry. I wish I had known. I wish you had let me be there for you.”

Elena shook her head. “There was nothing you could have done.”

“I could have been there to stop him from getting himself killed,” Eddie snapped back at her. “Jason was an idiot, but he didn’t deserve that.”

“If you had been there, you might well have been the one to kill him!” Elena snapped back at him. Again, she snatched her hand away from her brother’s. “You weren’t there. You didn’t see him. He wasn’t Jason anymore. He…he hit me.”

“He what?” Eddie’s eyes blazed then. He half-stood, as if he were going to go out there and find Jason. “If that asshole wasn’t already dead, I’d—”

“No. I assure you, I gave as good as I got, but he wasn’t Jason anymore. The grief ate him up, and he lashed out at everyone,” Elena explained. “It wasn’t just me and the men. It was everyone.”

Eddie growled, the sound rumbling in his chest.

“That’s why I couldn’t stay with the home pack, why I came here, why I’ve been the way I have,” Elena explained, taking a deep breath as she prepared herself for what came next, “But I never imagined what I’d find here.”

Eddie looked even more confused than before. “Here?”

Elena nodded. “I found a home.”

“Of course you did!” Eddie said, laying his hand on her shoulder this time. “Wherever I am will always be home for you.”

Elena grimaced. Shaking her head, she met her brother’s gaze again, praying this wasn’t about to blow up in her face. “That’s true, but I didn’t mean it like that. Eddie, I’m pregnant again.”

Eddie’s eyes widened with astonishment. She expected that to turn to anger, to demanding to know who the hell was the father. She prepared herself for telling the truth, the whole truth.

But instead, Eddie smiled wide and said, “That’s excellent news! A piece of Jason will live on, then!”

Elena could tell her brother didn’t really mean that. She could tell he was only trying to be positive for her sake. But the fact that he had entirely missed the point made her feel sick.

Gripping hold of his hand, she moved it from her shoulder and held it firmly. “Jason isn’t the father, Ed.”

If he had been in wolf form, she was sure his hackles would have risen then. Instead, his back straightened and he tried to pull his hand free of hers. Elena clutched hold of it tightly. There was no way in hell she was going to let him go.

She knew what he would do if he did. The second he learned the truth, he would go flying out of here.

“If he isn’t the father…who the fuck is?”

Gritting her teeth, Elena ground out, “Hanson.”

Eddie tried to snatch his hand away, but she held on tighter. Her other hand flew around his wrist, holding him in place. Lucky for her, it seemed he was still recovering from his own wounds, or there was no way she would have been able to keep him there.

“How?” he growled.

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