Page 156 of Nash

I glance at Loch, and his chest heaves, realizingthis is it. He moves to rise, to stop Nash. “Let me?—”

“No.” But Nash stops him. “She’s my daughter. This is my doing, and it’s my fault, so let me tell her.”

“Tell me what?” Alena glances from Loch to her Dad and then to me. “Vale, what’s going on? Oh, sweetie, why are you crying so much?”

She starts to cry, too, and I can’t stop the words. I can’t hide it. I can’t lie to my best friend anymore.

“I love your dad.” It rushes over my lips. “I’ve been in love with him since I was eighteen, and I’m so sorry. I really am. I hid it for so long so you wouldn’t get hurt. And now, we’ve been together and hiding it from you, but we were going to tell you after the wedding. I thought we were in love, and it would be okay, but then I found out he’s been lying to you and?—”

“Wearein love,” Nash fumes. “Don’t you ever put us in the past tense, poison. I won’t fucking allow it.”

“Wait.” Alena shakes her head. “What do you mean you’re lying and in love?”

Nash whips his passionate fury from me to Alena. “I love her. I love Vale and never acted on it all these years because I never wanted to hurt you.Ever.I was willing to die alone, without her, to keep you happy and safe until?—”

“Until it stopped being safe,” Loch interjects. “Until I came around.”

Alena turns to him. “What? You? What do you have to do with…” She stammers, gesturing to me and Nash, “Them and…” She looks at me. “And you love my dad? Likelove, love him?”

I nod, streams pouring down my face. “I’m so sorry, but I do … I mean, I did.” I want to throw up. “But he lied to you. To me. And now I don’t know what to feel.”

“Lied to us? About what?” Alena jumps up, waving her finger our way. “If you two are … whatever … then yeah, it freaks me out. A lot. It’s weird. I never saw it coming, but…”

She’s on a roll. You can’t stop her.

“But it’s not a lie that you’readults. You can do what you want,” she reasons. “Dad, you’ve acted like a goddamn monk my whole life, but I knew it was a lie. I just figured you kept your sex life away from me. And Vale, you’ve been miserable and lonely. It kind of makes sense. And now half of me wants to vomit, and half of me is relieved you’re not alone.” She balls her fists. “So, am I pissed? Yes! Will I get over it? Give me a goddamn chance to breathe, and maybe I will!”

This is the Alena I love—the strong one, the one who will yell down a grizzly bear and send it running away. She gets this from her dad.

“So why the hell are you freaking me out?” She shouts. “Days before I get married, and what does this have to do with Loch?” She turns to him. “What’s going on?”

“Alena, I…” Loch stands, reaching for her hand. His eyes burn so blue with his plea, “Babygirl, I love you. Please believe it. You have to.”

I stand in our tornado of lies and love and can see the eye of Loch’s storm—he’s not lying. He loves her.

“Nash.” Nadine finally speaks. Calmy. Warmly. Like a matriarch who could quell any fight. “Go speak with Alena, and we’ll wait here. Then, she can speak with my son.”

Alena’s brown eyes shock wide open. “Yourson?”

Nadine nods. Loch bows his head in shame, and Nash takes over.

“Come on, sweetpea.” He steps toward her. “Just, please, let me tell you everything, and then you can hate me as Vale does.”

He’s trying to joke to calm us, but it doesn’t work.

The bomb has exploded, I’m furious, and Alena’s in shock. She lets him wrap an arm over her shoulder and lead her down the hallway to her bedroom, closing the door behind them.

The silence is deafening until I hear her muffled cries. Then my glare slices from Loch to Nadine. “How could you do this to her?” I shake my head, not believing of all people; Nadine lied to her, too.

“Because I love her, Vale.” Loch addresses me for the first time. “Just like I saw with my own eyes how much Nash loves you. And Iwillfight for her.” He clenches his teeth. “So, don’t get in my way and regret it.”

“Lyov,” Nadine arches her brow at him, “that isnothow you speak to a queen.”

“My apologies,” he fumes, “but Vale, you read this all wrong. Does it matter how we fall in love with someone? Or does it matter more how we’ll love them until the day we die?”

Suddenly, I see Axel’s fury in Loch. I see Sire’s conviction, Jace’s warmth, Grant’s steel, and Nick’s wisdom. Suddenly, I see the man who’s been standing right in front of me for over a year.

He’s a beast, too.

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