Page 86 of Piece You Saved

Is this what’s making Dariel’s wolf so crazy? Is it why Kade spent night after night tucked in Cerberus’s darkest corner, drinking whiskey and having strippers dance for him?

I hadn’t thought about her much before now. Now, I wonder who she was, where they met her, and what she looked like. There are other more urgent questions that have burrowed into my heart and are becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.

Do you all still love her? Am I just a poor replacement for her?

When someone stops stabbing my heart with a flaming pitchfork, I lift my head and meet Aden’s eyes, willing him not to read the jealousy I hope I’ve buried deep enough.

His eyes catch mine, holding my gaze for a beat, then he lowers his fork, peels mine from my hand, and places it on the table.

“Aden?” I frown.

He slides a hand around my nape and leans close, kissing me lightly on the lips as he keeps his eyes open. “She wasn’t you, and you are not her.”

I don’t think I’ve ever been so confused in my life. “What?”

“What we had with Mona isn’t what we have with you,” he says.

It’s killing me not to know, so I force myself to ask the question, already bracing myself for the answer, despite Aden’s sweet kiss. “What did you have with her, and what do you have with me?”

“Dariel’s biggest fear is that his wolf will get out and savage an innocent person,” Aden says.

As interesting as that is, it isn’t the question I want him to answer. I want to know if Dariel killed Monica, accidentally or on purpose; and, as selfish as it is, how I’m different from her. And why?

“Why do you call her Mona?” I prompt. “Dariel calls her Monica, and so did Sam.”

“She was different things to all of us,” he says, returning to his breakfast.

It’s not much of an answer. Or enough of one.

“But why? She was one person.”

What things? And why does it feel like he’s tiptoeing around something he doesn’t want to tell me?

“He lunged at her,” Aden says suddenly. “It terrified her. He was getting dressed one morning, and she was going back to her room. Her scream was… it was bad.”

Is it awful to be relieved it wasn’t just me? Probably.

“Did he love her?” I force myself to ask.

Aden stares at me. Sees through me, I think.

He slowly nods. “Yes, I think he did.”

I take in his distant expression, and for the first time, I feel sorry for Dariel. He loved Monica, and even that wasn’t enough to stop his wolf from trying to kill her. Or maybe hedidkill her. Aden still hasn’t told me how or why she died.

“Couldn’t he stop his wolf?”

Aden half-shrugs. “He doesn’t think he can. When you see the damage his wolf has done to his office—and how often—you’ll understand why.”

So his wolf went from being a protector to an uncontrolled beast he has to keep behind a reinforced door in case he kills someone who doesn’t deserve it.

Deserve.

I seize on the word.

“What if the people he lunges at do something to deserve it?” I ask.

Too late, I realize how it must sound. “I don’t mean Monica. I mean—”

---