Page 89 of Fragile Heart

A growl rumbles through my sister’s chest. I pause on the step below her.

“You going to tell me why Devynn saw you leave The Outpost last night with Brielle if you were in fuckingJackson?”

She doesn’t move out of my way. She’s tall for a woman, even an Alpha, but she’s still only eye level with me from her perch above me. And every single speck of that brown that’s identical to mine sparkles with rage right now.

“Probably because she saw us leave together,” I say, keeping my voice low and disinterested. “I went there after I got back from my shit in Jackson.”

Just in fucking time, too.

The thought of Jake touching her, bruising her, has my own rage festering.

Her mouth tightens with her rising anger. It bleeds into her vanilla scent, giving it a sour edge.

“All right. So now you get to tell me why Joan saw you drop her off at her car this morningafterwhen you said you’d be by to pick up Cam.”

I give her the glare that her demand really deserves. Goddamn small towns. The lack of privacy has never really bothered me—until now. Maybe because I’ve managed to keep my secret still secret despite the gossipers searching for the next big story. At least until Brielle moved back.

“Yeah, you know why,” I tell her, “and despite what you might tell me, you don’t actually want me to tell you I had Brielle laid out on my bed this morning, Emily.”

Emily raises an eyebrow but doesn’t move.

“Mom know?” I ask.

She narrows her eyes before shaking her head once.

Thank God. I don’t have the patience to tell Mom about the scent match today. And the rest of it? Well, at least she’ll understand some of it better than most. But even still, it’s not something I want to approach today.

“Good,” I say, trying to move around her.

Emily growls, low and lethal in a way I’ve never heard from her before. I pause.

“Brielle is my friend, Ethan,” she says, her voice low. “Don’t you fuckingdarethink about hurting her.”

My patience snaps.

“So Caleb’s allowed to fuck her as often as he wants, mark her and make it clear to everyone with a goddamn half of a brain in town that they’re serious as fuck, but the moment I show the slightest bit of interest, you decide to have a problem with it?”

Her throat ripples with her swallow, but her gaze stays flinty.

“Calebwantsto move on from Kayla,” she says, raising her voice.

I scoff. “And I don’t? You have no fucking idea where I am in grieving my bonded Omega.”

“He’s her goddamn scent match, Ethan.” Emily spits the words at me. “And when I cornered him after he took her out hiking and asked why he had a sudden interest in her, he was fuckinghonestabout it. But you? You’ve done nothing butlie to meabout her at every possible moment.”

“What the hell have I lied about?” I snarl the question and force her back a step, crowding onto the porch.

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe the fact that you spent an entire summer with her, wrapped up around her, entrenched enough that it broke her heart when you broke it off when she went back to school.”

I pause. She’d told Emily I’d broken her heart? I open my mouth to say something, but she doesn’t stop.

“Or how about when she showed up at Brandon’s funeral in support of Melissa, you looked me dead in the eyes and said you didn’t fucking know her and Kayla frowned because she couldtellyou weren’t telling me the truth.”

Her chest heaves, and she fists her hands, dropping them to her sides.

“Did Kayla know, at least? Or did she get to live in your lovely web of lies, too?”

Something snaps in me. My voice is low and venomous.

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