Page 22 of Claimed By My Fiancé's Brother

It took me a moment to notice no one was cheering for Dylan’s win. The entire clearing was silent, and I could guess why.

We all knew Alexander had thrown that duel. That was the only way Dylan could’ve won.

I wondered if Dylan knew that as well.

I turned my back on the two brothers and pushed my way out of the crowd, suddenly feeling suffocated.

Had Anastasia been right? Was this all really my fault?

The route back to Alexander’s residence was mostly deserted, with most of the pack members either at the pack house or the dueling grounds.

That was good. I badly needed a moment to myself to think without any?—

And then a familiar figure stepped out of the infirmary and right into my path.

“Micah,” I breathed.

Clenching her jaw, she ignored me and tried to move around me.

I caught her arm and pulled her to a stop.

“Did you start seeing Dylan before I got engaged to him?” I asked.

“And if I did?” Micah glared at me. Those brown eyes that had once been a source of comfort were now filled with hostility.

My heart ached.

Micah and I had been friends since I was five. On the day our friendship started, I’d been bullied by the children in the Red Moon Pack, and she’d offered me a shy smile and a Band-Aid that refused to stay on no matter what we tried.

The child in me refused to believe her friend had betrayed her.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked, hearing the desperation in my voice but unable to stop myself.

I wanted her to tell me something, anything at all to make it make sense. I wanted to forgive her.

Micah placed her hand above mine and pushed it off her arm.

Her lips twisted with disdain.

“If you weren’t too caught up in yourself to notice the things around you, you might have noticed, Eleanor.”

I sucked in a sharp breath.

“For the sake of our friendship, I’m trying to understand you, but?—”

Micah didn’t let me finish.

“Our friendship?” She scoffed, rolling her eyes. “Don’t make me laugh, Eleanor. We were many things to each other, but never friends.”

We weren’t friends?

We’d spent the last seventeen years exploring as much of the world as we could together within the constraints of the Red Moon Pack.

We’d shared everything with each other—our joys, our sorrows, our frustrations, our tears.

I knew her as well as I knew myself…or at least, that was what I’d thought.

“I don’t understand.” My voice came out as a whisper.

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