Page 89 of The Weakest Wolf

“No, they agreed.” Finished with the cloth, I wring it out and leave it on the side of the bath, and reach for a towel. “Which should have made me instantly suspicious. Do you want to soak a little longer, or are you ready to get out?”

Sierra shrugs. “Whatever.”

I take in the tension around her eyes. Her ribs must be hurting again, which is a problem. The drive to Upstate New York is twenty-five-plus hours, and I have no idea how she’s going to sit upright for that long. I pull the plug, and once the water has drained, I sling the towel around her and lift her.

“You should’ve told me when it started hurting,” I murmur as I carry her back into the bedroom and lay her down on the bed.

“It doesn’t hurt,” she lies.

Shaking my head, I grab another towel and start drying her. “So, my parents said okay, that I could mate with Melody, and they agreed we’d have a mating ceremony when she was eighteen.”

“And then what happened?”

“I told Melody, who was as excited as I was, and Eden too. They were best friends, so Eden knew it was what we both wanted. A few days later, my father came to me to say he and Mom were throwing a small party for us, a pre-mating celebration.”

“But that isn’t what happened.”

I lift my head. “Oh, it happened, all right.”

Her eyes search my face. “It was a trick.”

Nodding, I pick up the shirt I put aside for her from the bag I grabbed from my truck. The farmhouse wasn’t where I would have brought her if she hadn’t been so badly hurt, but she wouldn’t have survived the journey back into town. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much liquor as I did that night.”

Carefully, I ease the white t-shirt over her head and pull it down to cover her hips, tossing the wet towel aside when I’m done.

“So you got drunk and slept with another woman,” her narrowed eyes tell me she isn’t the least bit surprised.

After I’ve grabbed another towel, I tuck it under her head and meet her gaze. “No, Mom dragged Melody off for some secret game. Dad handed me drink after drink. I don’t remember passing out or going to bed. But I woke up the next morning naked in my bed, and I wasn’t alone.”

Her eyes widen.

“Yes. That was how my parents decided to tackle the problem of having a son with a fated mate they’d rather he didn’t have.”

With the benefit of hindsight, I can see how clever their plan was. They knew I would never turn away from Melody, that the soul bond linking us together would always be there. If they wanted to rip us apart, they needed to make Melody look at me and see someone who had betrayed her on the happiest night of her life.

And then they had what they wanted: A son who would continue their work in making the Ashe pack everything they wanted it to be and more. Who cares if it meant breaking apart soul mates to get it?

She clears her throat. “Melody?”

“Oh, they made sure to send her in just when I was waking up with a naked woman’s tongue in my mouth and no idea what the fuck was going on. By the time I shoved her off me, Melody had already taken off.”

“You could have explained.”

“I tried. She refused to see me, much less speak to me. Eden told me she didn’t have a brother anymore. That I was dead to her for breaking Melody’s heart like that.”

A frown creases her brow. “But you—”

I snort. “If I hadn’t told you what my parents were like, would you believe me? If you had been Melody and you saw what I just told you, would you have believed it had been a setup?”

After a moment, she shakes her head. “No. No, I don’t think I would.”

“I tried to talk to her, but she looked through me like I wasn’t there. My parents acted like that was just what teenage boys were like. That it was perfectly natural for me to want to sleep around. They spread it about that they were upset things hadn’t worked out with Melody, but they’d found someone who’d be more fitting for the next alpha of the Ashe pack. And do you know what I did?”

“You left.”

“I ran away. I found a job as a laborer. I learned to do my laundry, learned to make chicken soup because I thought the stuff from the can was shit, and eventually I formed my own pack.” I fall silent as I think about the miserable years before I found Dom. “The bond between us was still there. But I felt it fading more and more.”

When Sierra smothers a yawn, I help her into the bed. It’s risky staying here for another night, but she’s still not well enough to travel. “I left when I was nineteen, and I had a pack I could call my own when I was twenty-six.”

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