She Killed Me Once, So This Time the Whole Pack Is Watching novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: Not Adopted

I walked out of the infirmary into the cold gray morning, and Bram came after me.

He caught up on the steps of the moon hall.

"Rosalind."

"Don't tell me it's going to be all right."

"I wasn't going to." He stood one step below me, so our eyes were level. "I was going to tell you what I said to your father."

"I heard some of it from the doorway."

"Which part?"

"The part where you'd pick me out of a hundred strangers."

His mouth moved.

"Then you know."

"I didn't, before." I looked at my bandaged hand. "I thought the pack gave you a mate and you took her. I thought you'd have bonded anyone fate sent."

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard you say."

"I've been dead since yesterday. Give me room."

He laughed, a short startled sound, and then he stopped.

"Say the rest," he said. "Whatever you're holding."

I took a breath.

"Six years you sat on that porch with her, Bram. And every time she walked home from it she was angrier, and every time I paid." I kept my voice level. "I don't blame you for being kind. But I think she hurt me worse after every visit."

His face went white.

"I never knew."

"I know you didn't."

"I'd have cut my own hand off."

"I know that too," I said. "That's why I'm telling you now, and not in a year when it's rotted."

He took my face in both hands.

His palms were rough and warm.

"Then I'm done sitting on porches."

"Good."

"No more kindness for anyone who touches you."

"Good," I said again, and my voice came out lower than I meant.

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