Page 1 of Broken Wolf

1

“Lie to me.”

Simone did a double take and let out a slow breath. “You figured it out.”

I tossed back my drink and wiped my eyes, trying to keep my emotions under control. “I’m hurt no one has fucking told me.” I met her gaze and blinked back tears. “Really hurt.”

“We didn’t… Sera, we’re worried about you.”

“We’re always all worried—”

“You can’t be dismissive and yell at me for not talking to you in the same breath,” she snapped. She cleared her throat and apologized.

She was right, and I wiped my eyes again, staring out at the Chicago skyline. We were having our first ‘Ladies Night,’ which we sorely needed, while the guys were having their bonding. It wasn’t a big thing, just fun on the roof of the club and some spa treatments. But we had too much complicated. We needed more relaxed.

“How did you figure it out?” I asked, trying to come at this another way.

“Last week when the human came in to handle the appointments. She lied about traffic being horrible as the reason why she was late. You always call people on that.” She sighed when I flinched. “I know you—people are assholes, Sera. Some pick on you about being petty. I get that.”

“I’m not being petty by picking on them,” I defended. “Liars are liars, and when we know they lie about stuff, it’s hard to trust them about bigger stuff. Plus, it’s stupid. She was late. It doesn’t matter if it was traffic or she slept in or wanted sex with her lover. It was ten minutes. Don’t bother to lie about that.”

She nodded, knowing me well enough that I wasn’t judging and was just being a genuine person. “You normally remind people not to lie to shifters and let it go. You didn’t. You didn’t even register it. I was going to say something, but Carter was there and stopped me. I realized that he has always been around for over a week now and something was up.”

I opened my mouth but then closed it, realizing she was right. “He hasn’t had one APOT job.”

She nodded. “He called Galvin on the side and requested to use his vacation saying the team could work without him just fine. He said it was an emergency after what happened with your—Stacey.”

“How could he not fucking tell me?” I whispered, feeling stupid and played.

“Sera, give him this one,” she said gently, nodding when I couldn’t hide my shock. “Please, please hear me that I’m scared this time. I love you and you’re doing great, but—I am a mess for you. I keep crying and—so many of us are gutted for you. We don’t—there is no book on how to help for shit this fucked up.”

I swallowed loudly and stared out at the night. “It was dangerous for me not to have known.”

“Yes, but you’ve been validly fragile, and Carter was scared that one more way you felt different or broken and you would shatter. I didn’t disagree. I wasn’t sure it was the right answer, but—he said Phobie didn’t know either.”

I felt my lower lip quiver and bit it to stop as I tried to gather my thoughts as to what to say. “He talked to my therapist about it, but no one talked to me? You guys don’t get how that makes me feel more broken and—”

She grabbed my arms and forced me to face her, giving me a shake. “Feel loved, Sera. We all love you so much that we’re scared for you. We’re not gossiping that you got fat or you can’t handle something—aren’t a good leader. We’re talking about how to help you survive finding out your psycho mom wanted you dead and we almost didn’t have you in our lives!”

She broke down crying which shocked me so much that I simply blinked at her. I set down my glass and hugged her to me, somehow comforting her when it was about me breaking?

I was pretty sure that wasn’t actually what was going on but again, I missed a lot, so… Yeah, it was how it seemed to me.

It was probably us sharing something together that I didn’t understand or catch. Her being so upset and supporting me?

People and emotions were difficult.

“How did you figure it out?” she asked me when she settled.

I sighed. “One of the boys told a totally normal fib that he didn’t hog the bathroom or take too long. I wasn’t even paying attention until a few of them snickered and ribbed him and then I noticed. I realized I hadn’t caught any of that when normally I did—harmless teenage stuff. Then it made me realize I hadn’t caught anyone in a lie in over a week that I could remember.”

“And you were terrified,” she sighed. “Which was why I didn’t want to keep it from you. Learning you weren’t catching it—I think Carter was too worried because he’s not a shifter and didn’t have answers.”

“Do you?” I asked, nodding when she flinched. “So we have no idea what’s wrong with me this time.”

“Please don’t think of it that way or about yourself,” she whispered, rubbing my arm. “It’s a disconnect, Sera. We have more to us than humans and our—our emotional manifests to physical. That’s what I know.”

“So if you had to guess?”

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