Page 115 of The Butcher

Indy frowns but allows me to stick a straw between her lips.

Someone definitely knew what they were doing when they decided to make this feisty female Bram’s scent match. She is going to give him such a run for his money, and I cannot wait to watch it all go down.

“On your back, mister,” Indy says as I set her water on the other side of me. “We are tired, we need to sleep more.”

“We?” I ask with a grin, scooting myself down into her mountain of blankets until I’m close enough for her liking. “Are you talking about you and Clay? Because I think our beta is going to be comatose for at least a week after you sucking the life out of him through his dick for the last four and a half days.”

Her cheeks go pink but she giggles. “Yeah, you might be right about that.” Indy glances over her shoulder, smiling at Clay as he snores in her ear. “It was worth it, though.”

“I know he’d say the same if he was amongst the living.”

Indy reaches for me as soon as I’m settled, tugging me close and lifting long enough for me to slide underneath her. She rests her head on my chest, wiggling around a bit before she wraps her arm around my waist and throws her leg across mine.

“You good?” I smirk down at her then laugh when she shakes her head.

“Hold on.” She reaches behind her, grabbing Clay’s arm and draping it across her middle, tugging it a few times until he scoots closer, then curves his body around hers. Indy snuggles into my side again, her head back on my chest. “Now I’m good.”

Me too.

Chapter Twenty-Three

SHITHEAD RISING

Bramley

Grinning to myself, I slam the tailgate closed, pull the cover back over the bed, then lock my truck as I walk through the pole barn, and head toward the front of the house.

I may not have the first fucking clue when it comes to trying to fix whatever I might have broken between me and Indy, but I think, at the very least, I found the perfect way to break the ice.

Stopping about halfway up the hill, I frown.

What if it’s permanent?

The damage has already been done, a lot of it between my overall behavior and the things I specifically said to her.

No.

I take a few slow steps before I stop again.

I told her I didn’t want her. I said those words to Indy, while trying like hell to make her believe them. I even said I didn’t care about what happened between me, and Nash and Clay. Told her she could just have them because I’m that fucking stupid.

Turning on my heel, I start walking back to the barn.

Roles reversed, I don’t think I could forgive me.

For denying our bond, for making me feel unwanted and unworthy, for insulting my mates and the bonds that werealready established with them. I’d a blow a goddamn gasket if I was in Indy’s position, and she would have every right to do that, then completely reject me when she was done.

Indigo Rae would be well within her rights as not just my scent match but as a human being if she told me to fuck myself sideways, then actually take our mates away from me. Why wouldn’t she? She has no reason to stay, not after how shitty I’ve been. None of them do.

I lift my hand and rub my jaw, running my tongue over what’s left of the split lip Nash gave me the last time I saw him.

That has to mean something.

With a grunt, I turn back around and start lumbering toward the house again.

Not just that he was obviously pissed at me, but that he still gave enough of a shit to get that angry, then act on it in a way he hasn’t in a long time.

We fight a lot but it’s never that serious. Not in a permanent kind of way. Nash and I butt heads because of our similarities, and because of the things that make us so different. It’s almost a lose-lose scenario, but I always thought that’s why we worked so well together. Balance. We bring balance to each other where it’s needed, and we challenge each other to think differently, to do things we wouldn’t normally do, and step outside of our self made boxes. If Nash was angry enough to come after me, then try to knock my ass out, it has to mean he still cares enough to try. And sometimes, knocking the sense into me is the only way.

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