Page 144 of Roaring Flames

“What this means is that he broke our deal,” a cool baritone rumbles from behind us.

I stiffen and slowly turn around.

“Daddy, please,” Desiree begs. “Just forget about it. You know the mating wouldn’t have worked anyway…”

Desiree’s father turns towards his daughter, and some of the anger in his face dissipates, replaced by desperation. “I won’t allow you to go feral. I refuse.”

“Mating with them won’t change anything?—”

“They’re the strongest pack around!” her father bellows, his cheeks turning red. “They’ll be able to save you. I know it. You just need to?—”

“I’m sure we can come up with another solution,” Ashton says smoothly, attempting to appear unruffled, but I can see the panic swirling in his eyes. I didn’t think I knew Ashton well enough to notice things like that, but apparently, I do. “Perhaps monetary compensation?—”

“This boy”—he jabs an angry finger in Ethan’s direction—“destroyed my entire house and nearly killed me. He deserves to spend the rest of his days in prison.”

Ethan flinches like he’s been kicked and lowers his large wolf head, placing it on his paws. A whine emanates from his chest.

“Did he tell you what he did?” Desiree’s father turns towards me, pure malice reflecting in his eyes.

“Dad, don’t!” Desiree snaps.

He ignores her. “You have no idea that your mate is a drug addict, do you? An alcoholic? Did he not mention that when he was between your legs?”

“You’re being fucking disgusting!” Desiree screeches, red blotches erupting on her cheeks.

“He’s not a drug addict anymore,” Ashton says stiffly.

“He ran his goddamn car through my living room after one of his benders. Not only did he nearly kill me, but he sent his own brother to the hospital. It’s a miracle Emery was able to walk again.”

“Why don’t you stop talking about shit you know nothing about?” Emery growls, coming to stand on my other side.

At some point, he must’ve thrown on a pair of jeans, though they appear slightly too big on him, the waistband hanging low on his hips.

Ethan whines again.

“Maybe it’s a good thing that Desiree won’t be tied to your pack,” the older man spits out. “You are all a bunch of fuckups.”

“We can talk about this,” Ashton tries again, keeping his voice calm and placating. “There has to be a solution?—”

“Yeah, a prison sentence.” He sneers down at Ethan, who whimpers and backs away. “You fucked up, boy. You fucked up real bad.”

And with that, he turns on his heel and stomps back towards the party—though everyone is paying more attention to us than anything or anyone else.

Desiree curses, shoots a hopeless glance in my direction, and then hurries after him, pleading with him to listen to her.

I turn to stare down at Ethan, who tilts his head up to maintain eye contact with me. “Is that true?”

Everything starts to make sense.

I finally understand why Emery has hated Ethan for as long as I’ve known him.

Ethan nearly killed Emery, and not only that, but he got their pack trapped in a relationship with a woman they didn’t love.

However, I don’t feel any anger or hatred or annoyance when I stare down at Ethan’s wolf. Only sadness. He carried this burden with him for just about a year now. It must be so incredibly tiring…and lonely.

How long has he been clean?

Did he have help along the way?

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