Page 94 of Marked By the Pack
“It’s all my fault.”
Oh, Otto.My heart hurt for him. I grabbed his hand. He couldn’t have possibly known something would happen.
He looked down at my hand on top of his. “I messed something up when I touched it. We’ve been trying to undo it ever since. All those artifacts in the vaults? We’re hoping to find one that will undo it all. But nothing works. I never meant for any of this to happen.”
“I’m sure none of your friends blame you.”
He laughed, but it sounded forced. “How could they not? I’m the one that touched it.”
I knew all of this was scary. But right now, I just felt bad. I wanted him to feel better. Really, this wasn’t his fault. I wanted to hug him, but I was still scared. I couldn’t shake the thought about the hay maze massacre. I wanted to know which one of them was responsible. But I also didn’t. Because I wasn’t sure I could look at whoever it was the same. I squeezed Otto’s hand.
He squeezed mine back.
“So you want to get rid of the curse. Maybe if…”
“I’m starting to think it’s not possible, Zoey.” He sounded so defeated. “We’ve tried everything.”
“But what if…”
“This is who I am. And you know me. I’m still me.”
I was trying to bring up the coin that King had mentioned. But telling Otto I wanted him to change didn’t seem like what he wanted to hear right now. He’d opened up to me. Not so that I could agree and tell him he needed to get rid of the curse. But because he wanted me to accept him like this. He was still him.
“Say something,” he said. “Anything.” He looked so broken.
I pressed my lips together. “So what makes you change into a werecat? Losing control?”
“Anger, jealousy…anything that upsets us makes us change.”
“And you can control being angry or jealous?”
“I didn’t change when Bennett started fucking you with his fingers, did I?”
“Otto…”
“I know you were mad at me. I deserved it. But don’t for a second think that I wasn’t mad about it.”
“But you didn’t change.”
“No. Because I meant what I said. I would never hurt you.”
“All that stuff that Bennett was saying though…about you being alone with me…”
“We have a system. And I broke it.”
“A system?”
“We’ve all agreed to only date the same woman. A serious relationship because we don’t want to share our secret with just anyone. It needs to be someone we trust. Like you.”
A serious relationship.That’s why Bennett kept saying he was looking for something serious. God, and I’d told him a million times I liked things casual. No wonder he was so dismissive of me.
“And we don’t fuck her alone. So that no one gets hurt.”
I just stared at him.
He cleared his throat and looked up at the stars. “If one of us loses control and changes, it insures that someone else will be there to stop us. From hurting her.” He looked back at me. “From hurtingyou.”
“But we’ve been alone together. We’re alone right now.”
