Page 21 of Rejected Exile

"Shut up. We both agreed we wouldn't tell him."

"He's high as a kite." I bury my head further in the sofa, dragging a pillow over my ears. But it isn't enough to keep me from hearing, "What would he do if he knew Delilah is back in town, anyway? Probably just get high again, like always. Nothing would change."

"Shut up! He can't know. It would destroy him."

"Like there's anything left to destroy."

I hear some of their words, but they're faint and distant. The pounding of my heart is a drumbeat in my ears, the roaring of my blood overwhelming. Emptiness gnaws at my stomach, until the soup starts to sound like a good idea.

She's here. She's back.

Of course. Her father died. Niall probably called her back to Juniper for that alone. There are things to take care of, ceremonies to perform...

But she missed the burning of his body and the ceremonial sealing of the ashes in the tomb. I didn't think she'd come after that. I looked and looked for her in the crowd, but she wasn't there.

Now she is. She'shere. Not that far away from me, either, if she's in her father's house.

It's enough to make me sit up despite the aching in my muscles. To convince me to clear my throat and make my presence known, though I hate the way Finn's eyes narrow at me, and how much pity and sadness is written on Roarke's face. I even manage to stand, swaying a little, and turn towards the kitchen, taking a few steps before I have to grab onto the wall for balance.

"Is that a stew?" I ask Roarke, my voice hoarse and raw. "Give me a bowl of it."

"Sure—of course!"

He looks happy that I'm up, which is more than a little sad. Probably he thinks I'm getting a second wind, rethinking things, considering sobriety.

I am, a little—for a few days at least.

Just as long as it takes to run Delilah out of town.

Permanently this time.

I made a promise to a dying man, after all. At William's side, as he drunkenly stumbled out of the bar one night—the same bar I was half-drunk and half-high in—he took me aside. For a moment, he sobered up, and looked me right in the face with keenness in his eyes.

"Remember what I told you seven years ago? The night before your Mating Ceremony. Thefirstone."

The shock of his words was enough to sober me up a little, too. We didn't talk aboutthat. About her. Not ever. "Of course."

"Well, I needed you then, and I need you now." He pushes a hand through his hair, and it struck me that he looked twenty years older than he had back then, not seven. "There's a promise I need you to make me. A big one."

"Maybe we should be sober for this."

"No. It's too important to wait."

William grabbed onto my shoulders and stared me down. Despite his inebriation, I couldn't forget that he was alpha. I felt it in the way his extra inches of height towered over me like it was a hundred feet. My wolf cowered and licked his lips, wanting to please him, to make him happy.

"Whatever it is," I told him then, "I'll do it. I swear. No matter what."

"Good." He nodded sharply. "Good boy."

Then he told me something that made me want to take back my words, even though I knew I couldn't.

"No matter what, my daughter can never, ever return to Glass Pack Territory.Never.I've made sure of it—done everything I can to keep her away, with your help." His hands tightened on my shoulders. "But I won't be around forever. I want you to promise me, no matter what, that if she comes back to town you'll run her out. At all costs. No matter what it takes."

"But you'll be around for a long time."

"Promise me." His hands tightened enough to make me wince. "You said you would, boy, now do it."

"I—I promise."

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