Page 92 of Claimed

But there’s uncertainty in his gaze rather than anger and accusation.

“I’m sorry if I took your father from you, Stacy Blackwood. I don’t remember it well, but I might remember it somewhat.”

Gosh, I love the sound ofStacy Blackwoodso much. I pull in a deep breath and exhale slowly, summoning courage, but I still have difficulty looking him in the eyes, so I stare at my hands as I twist my fingers instead and he waits patiently for me to find my voice.

“I… didn’t want to come after you for revenge. I didn’t want to do any of the things my brother forced me to do. I’m so very sorry that I shot you, that I hurt you. And that I poisoned some of your pack members. It haunts me.”

“I forgive you for that. So do they. I hope you can forgive me, too. Let’s not let things in the past haunt us and shape our minds. It will do more bad than good, I think.”

He has a point, though it’s not always that easy.

I say, “I can’t blame you for something when I don’t know the reasons behind it. My father wasn’t a good leader. He also wasn’t a very good man.”

“My uncle used to put me in fights. He used to drug me to pull me out of a blind rage that from my recollection he was responsible for. Either by words or perhaps he put some herbs in my food as well as he always served me a meal before a fight. I have a vague recollection of being sicced on a man that may have been related to you. I don’t know for sure if that’s who I’m recalling, and I don’t know why.”

Grey is back at this point, and I feel relief as he steps up to my side and wraps his arm around me. All the alphas around here aren’t easy for me to make direct eye contact with, maybe because of how frowned upon it was in my pack, but Tyson Savage is a different story. Maybe because of Father, because of how Wyatt feels about him. Maybe because I shot him and I’ll never forget that moment just before I pulled the trigger when his piercing green eyes locked with mine. But maybe also because he is just so large, masculine, and authoritative. He’s the kind of male my brother would hate immediately because of how threatening he is. Whenever Wyatt dealt with alphas from other packs he would puff his chest out more, act like more of a tyrant as if to out-alpha any other alphas. Just the bearing of Tyson Savage would be enough to frustrate my brother.

“We’ll move forward,” Tyson says. “Learn from the past.”

I nod and wring my hands nervously.

“Head home for a while, Blossom?” Grey suggests, thumb caressing my throat.

I make eye contact with him and see questions in his eyes. I nod.

He gives back slaps to Tyson, Mason, and Joel who are all nearby on our way to his car. They all say goodbye to me with friendliness and though I feel awkward doing it, I try to reciprocate their friendliness.

The drive back to his house is fast, but I can feel that Grey is preoccupied during it.

Bailey is walking up the driveway as we pull into it. She’s got an armful of clothing and is holding a large paper shopping bag with twine handles.

“Hey Bay,” Grey greets.

“Grey,” she returns, smiling.

“Hi,” I greet.

She jiggles her armful of clothing. “I’m here because there’s a party tonight. I figure Stacy doesn’t have a dress here.”

I haven’t even owned a dress since I was a little girl.

“Good idea,” Grey says. “I’ve got some calls to make, so why don’t you go try dresses on?” He kisses my temple and gestures for me to go ahead into the house.

Bailey follows and we go straight up to the master bedroom.

I’m beyond nervous about the surprise party for Erica’s birthday tonight. I’ll be facing much of his pack. Probably all the people I’ve wronged with the poison, including the women of the men who have been hurt by my shooting Tyson and by Wyatt’s attacks. I am not looking forward to this. But then again once it’s over, even if it doesn’t go great, at least it’s behind me. I guess that’s better than dreading it forever. And Bailey will be there, at least one person I’m comfortable with besides Grey.

“This was very thoughtful, Bailey. Thank you.”

“My pleasure. You’ll get a chance to see us in our natural state tonight. Eating too much, dancing, getting rowdy, you’ll see how much fun we can all have. How much fun we have every chance we get. I think this is good timing.” She drapes the dresses across the chair in the corner and gestures for me to have a look as shedumps the contents of the shopping bag onto the floor and I see three pairs of shoes. There’s a pair of low-heeled dress shoes, a pair of strappy sandals, and sexy high heels.

“Hope these shoes fit. If not, I can zip to town and get you something. Or borrow from Mom. She’s a size smaller.”

I stick my foot into a sandal and it fits. “It fits. Thank you, Bailey.”

“My pleasure. Ivy and Amelia are looking forward to meeting you. So is Cicely, my best friend.”

I shakily smile.

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