Page 113 of Did They Break You

Chase, Brinklin, probably Storm, too… they’d all lose their minds if anything serious ever happened between me and Cortland. We’re just getting closure. That’s all this is.Sick and twisted closure.

So why does it feel like a reopening?

“Which one is it, Remi?” Storm presses, Cortland still typing on his phone.

I swallow down my nerves as I stare at Storm. “You don’t know a fucking thing about me.”

He smiles, scrubs his hand over his face before he drops it to his lap. He looks away a second, and I take in his sharp jawline, smooth skin. “I know you’ve figured out what attention tastes like, and now you want more of it.” He doesn’t look at me as he speaks. “You were always in this shell at West, scared of your own shadow. Hiding behind Sloane.” Those words are low, and he turns to face me, his arm over the back of the couch. “We fixed that problem for you, didn’t we, Rems?”

He was almost clinical, that night.

And I was almostgrateful.

“You didn’t fix me, Storm,” I say, gritting my teeth. “I wasn’t broken.”

“Don’t kid yourself.” He shrugs, glancing at the floor. “We’re all a little fucked up here. It’s how you found your way into our clutches anyway.” He looks up, meeting my gaze, and for some reason, I think of Brinklin’s words.

“I’ve heard about your dad.”

He couldn’t have heard much. I never told anyone about my dad. Not Sloane, even after I realized something was very wrong with the way Silas parented after seeing the happiness of her own family. They fought but it was nothing like the way Silas cut me down. And Sloane was never scared of leaving a mess or not making her bed. The Stevens didn’t have as many things as we did, but they had a lot more of… everything else. I kept that secret locked up tight. I didn’t tell the girls on the team. Not even Van knows and him and Silas are—barely—related. I sure as hell didn’t tell Cortland.

Because if I did, if I had, he might know other things too.

About the morning after. About what Silas tried with me.

I cross my arms, guilt winding its way through my heart and squeezing. I try to ignore it, because it doesn’t change anything. What happened after doesn’t change what happenedduring.

“Wolves run in packs, Remi,” Storm continues, turning his gaze to me again. “They’re protective of their own. And that night…we made you one of us.”

I glance at Cort and see he’s still on his phone. Irritation winds its way through me.

“Your wolf metaphors are annoying me,” I snap back to Storm. “You’re only human, and brave ones don’t need to run in packs.”

I never asked to be one of them. Never wanted to be anyone’s but Cortland’s.

I hear him snort, from inside the kitchen, finally putting his phone away. “Nice, baby.”

Storm cocks a brow and doesn’t say anything, but I see a smile pull on his lips.

Then Cortland is pushing a drink into my hand. I take it and bring it to my mouth without asking what’s in it. It’s strong, and it burns, not mixed with much juice, but I don’t care. I swallow half of it down before I pull the cup away, catching my breath.

They’re both staring at me, a beer in Cortland’s hand. He raises his brows at me, tipping his beer back and swallowing, his gray eyes full of something like amusement. “You thirsty?” he asks with a smirk, those full lips turned up into a smile.

I feel my face flush red, but I don’t care. “Yeah.” I shoot a glare to Storm, find him watching me with amusement, too. “I am.”

Cortland wraps his arm around my shoulder, and it feels so normal that when he starts walking us around the chairs and to the couch beside Storm, I don’t even think twice about it. It’s like that summer. Those few weeks we had to just be. I don’t know if it was young love, or just a hardcore crush, but it was something.

For me, it was a welcome escape.

For him, maybe it was just passing the time.

Whatever it was,he made me feel alive.

A new world was on the horizon. I was leaving Silas for college, even if it was just up the street because the scholarship I’d earned was too good to pass up. I’d be out from underneath him, and maybe then I could justbewithout constantly looking over my shoulder, worried I wasn’t doing enough. Being enough. That I’d forgotten to clean something or cook something or hide something.

Then everything fell down around me.

And Silas loathed me more than he ever had.

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