Page 26 of Breathe Again

“I told you, I’m an expert on all things Cole Anderson, so what do you want to know? Just try not to growl at me again.” She laughed.

“You’re sure you don’t mind?”

“Never. Ask me anything,” she said, so I did.

“Has he really led a miserable life in San Marco?”

Lily sighed. “No, he hasn’t. He has a great life, lots of friends, everyone loves him. He’s sort of an honorary Westin, as in part of my family. He has his shop and his place in the Pack and he’s very proud of both. The miserable parts he keeps locked up inside. Tattoos are sort of an expression for him, an outlet for the pain. I was honestly surprised when he had confessed to me that he knew his true mate.” She stopped sort of abruptly there and looked away.

“You already told me about that, remember?”

“Yeah,” she said, but she was still hesitating.

“Is there more you left out?”

“No, I mean, it wasn’t his words exactly, Lizzy, it was how vulnerable and upset he was talking about it. I mean, this is Cole Anderson. He’s larger than life, everyone’s friend. He can have any woman he wants, and he’s telling me none of that matters because it’s an empty and lonely life filled with a constant pain in his chest without you. I don’t know. I’d just never seen him like that before. It freaked me out enough to come back and seriously give Thomas a chance, and I’m so glad I did,” she confessed.

I sat there stewing over what she’d said. I could relate, because it was exactly how I’d felt all these years too; a shell of myself, hollow inside.

My sisters barged through my front door without even bothering to knock—all five of them.

“What are you guys doing here?” I asked.

“Sorry, I couldn’t keep them contained any longer,” Maddie said. My little niece squirmed in her arms, wanting to get down.

“You brought Sara, so you’re forgiven,” I told her.

The others stared as Maddie handed the baby to me. I had bitten my tongue on so many stupid little things around them for so long, that they seemed shocked that I said anything at all. Maddie, however, had been gone for nearly all those years, so she only remembered a snarky teenage girl who was ready to stand ground with anyone. It was what made me want to go into law. I loved arguing a case before a judge; it made me feel like, well, me, and there were days that I forgot who I was.

Sara squirmed in my lap. “She’s growing too fast, MC. You’ve got to stop feeding her so well or something,” Lily said.

Lily and Madelyn had been best friends since childhood. Lily and her siblings were the only people that called Maddie by her initials—MC. She’d been doing that since they were just small pups.

The Westin kids were all very close. I was envious of their connection sometimes. However, I liked my space and normally my siblings respected that, though it didn’t seem so much of late. It wasn’t that we weren’t close, we just weren’tthatclose. The only reason my sisters were up in my business at the moment was because they smelled gossip and drama and wanted to be first in the know. Especially Ruby.

Ruby was four years younger than me, but we had always fought like cats and dogs. Our personalities had always been so similar, until they weren’t because my fire was gone. It had upset her more than anyone else, or at least she was the most vocal about it. I was feeling alive again, an internal flame rekindled, and I wasn’t sure how she was going to handle it.

“Okay, if everyone else is just going to stand around gawking at the baby, then I’m going to just come out with it,” Ruby said. “Lizzy, you dropped a bomb on us last night, then disappeared, went horseback riding—quite literally bareback—got caught up with Larkens somehow, had to get stitches in your leg, and Cole Anderson slept over to take care of you?!? The Cole Anderson who you informed us, not so eloquently I might add, was your one true mate. Am I missing anything here, ladies? What the heck is going on?”

“Did you really tell them Cole’s your one true mate?” Shelby asked.

“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” Clara said, scolding the others with her staredown.

“It’s fine,” I said. My wolf was more content than ever, and nothing they could say or do could ruin my day. “And yes, Shelbs, Cole is my true mate. We’ve known it since we were kids. What else do you guys want to know, because this is your one and only chance for a heart-to-heart, so go.”

They all just sat there staring at each other, not sure what to ask.

“Wait, since you were kids? How is that possible?” Peyton piped in.

“Well, I guess not really kids, just feels like it. I was sixteen and he was eighteen when we first suspected, that summer he stayed with us.”

“Not possible,” Ruby countered. “I remember when your wolf came in and I’m positive it was after he spent the summer with us.’

“True, but for some reason his wolf had already started our bond. I can’t explain it really,” I said honestly. “But he was so certain by the end of that summer.”

“Have you even seen him since then?” Peyton asked.

“Just once. I was eighteen and home for break my freshman year of college. We argued. I said a lot of hurtful things, anything to push him away. I thought it was for the best at the time. I’d been stupid and too stubborn to reach out and admit it when I realized.”

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