Page 6 of Tainted Hearts

Her words don’t seem to surprise me. I love my dad, he’s not a horrible guy, but I’ve always had a feeling he was into something he shouldn’t have been. I’ve seen the way his demeanor changes when he’s around Michael. I always just assumed it was because, out of the three of them, Michael was the leader.

Isaac laughs, but it’s not out of humor. “Of course he’s up to something. When is he not?” He shakes his head.

“You're not mad at me?” Abby’s brows furrow together.

“Why would we be?” Luke asks, genuinely confused.

“Because I just accused your dads of being up to something, most likely nothing good.”

“Look,” I sigh, standing and walking over to her. “We love our dads.”

“Not all of us,” Isaac snarls.

I try again. “My dad and Luke’s dad aren’t as bad as Isaac’s, but they aren’t exactly fathers of the year. We understand that being the sons of archangels comes with a lot more pressure than any other pure blood, but the way they pushed some things on us while we were growing up, we’ve started to question things.”

“So, what do we do?” she asks.

“You leave that part to us.” I look at the guys, and they nod. “We’ll find out what’s going on. I think, by now, they know we're done being their little puppets.”

“You don't have to do it alone, you know. I’d like to help in whatever way I can.”

I give her a warm smile. “We won’t leave you out. Anything we find out, we’ll let you know.”

“Come on, Little Bird.” Zed pulls her down onto his lap and gives her a searing kiss that has her moaning. My cock twitches at the sound. When they break apart, her face is flushed, but the love she has for him makes my heart yearn for her to look at me like that someday. “We gotta get going to my place. Mom wants to hang out with us for my birthday.” Zed stands, taking her with him. Leo gets up and follows them out.

“See you guys later!” Abby calls out as they leave the room.

“Well, fuck,” Isaac sighs heavily, running a hand through his dark locks before scrubbing his face. “What the hell do we do now?”

“Is it kinda sad that I’m not surprised at all about what Abby said she overheard?”

“I’m not. I knew from the moment my dad first hit me that everything he’s been spewing to the pure bloods is bullshit. I’ll bet you anything that’s what she overheard our dads talking about. No doubt it’s my dad leading this fucked up bullshit.”

“So, what? We do some digging, see what they've been up to. How the hell do we do that?” Luke asks.

“I don’t know!” Isaac snaps. “Fuck. Sorry. It’s just a lot to deal with, everything that’s happened in the last twenty-four hours.”

“I know.” I pull him to his feet and into my arms. He goes willingly, burying his face into my chest.

“I’m sorry,” he says again, but he’s not talking about getting upset.

“I know,” I repeat. “We love you, Isaac, so damn much. It’s us against the world. And now we have another mate to think about. So, tomorrow, you're going to start your groveling with your first big gesture toward winning her forgiveness.”

“And what is that?” he asks, pulling back to look me in my eyes.

“You're going to dump Heather. Publicly. You tell the whole school who Abby is to you. No more secrets, no more lies, and no more hiding.”

“My dad isn’t going to be happy about that,” he mutters, looking a little pale.

“And he’s never going to get you alone again to be able to hurt you. We won’t let him. He seems set on keeping up his perfect reputation, so he won’t cause a big fuss if we intervene. We just have to make sure we don’t show that we know something is going on.”

“Alright.” Isaac nods. “I hate Heather anyways. I’m more than happy to be rid of her.”

“We never should have been forced to be engaged to those horrible girls,” Luke growls.

“Starting tomorrow, we're taking our lives back. Beginning with claiming our mate the way we should have and treating her with the respect she deserves. Nothing less. Do you understand?” I direct that toward Isaac. Normally, I’m the quiet one, I only speak up when I feel the need to. And right now, is one of those times.

“She’s never going to forgive me,” he mopes in defeat. “But I’m going to try to do what I can to make up for what I’ve done.”

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