Page 55 of Wolf Bound

Drayton laughs at the memory, his eyes staring off into the distance like he was watching it all unfold again.

“My powers told me he was scared of heights! How was I supposed to know that even at eleven years old he had balls of fucking steel?” I say, laughing with Drayton at the memory. “The motherfucker stole the rest of my gummy worms after I gave you ten because he said I shouldn’t have made the bet at all.”

“Alaric does not appreciate being underestimated. Never has, never will,” Drayton says between laughs. “Just be happy you weren’t Penn. He took poor Penn’s favourite teddy bear after Penn told Alaric he couldn’t beat him at the full moon run. The bastard still keeps it on his shelf like a fucked up trophy.”

“Penn told me he got rid of that thing because he was too old for it!” I look at Dray in shock, shaking my head at the lie. “That motherfucker.”

“The only one to actually best him has been Wes,” Drayton reminisces, taking me down memory lane with him. “Do you remember that?”

“How could I forget? It was when we found out that Wes is the best damn tracker anyone has ever seen.” I shake my head, remembering the shock we all felt when quiet, nerdy Wes destroyed everyone at the yearly hunt at only thirteen years old. “The look on Alaric’s face was priceless after that one.”

“Penn held it over his head for like two years before Alaric headlocked him and refused to let go until he agreed to shut up about it.”

We laugh together, thinking back to all those memories we made as a group. It always felt like we were a smaller pack within the pack. For most of my life they were my ride or die, the ones I would give up anything for. Drayton gets sombre again suddenly, looking at me to get my attention.

“Behind closed doors a lot of bad shit happened to me. Things that I still refuse to talk about to this day,” he explains with tears in his eyes. Seeing the vulnerability on his face made me feel better about how much of my own I’ve shown. “Those things were done by adults that should have known and done better. They were evil and they took advantage of the power imbalance between me and them. None of that is on you. Not then and not now. If I was a victim, then so are you. We were used and abused in different ways, but just because mine was more openly cruel, does not negate that yours happened.”

“It’s hard now that Talia has healed so much of the manipulation to face how much I didn’t see growing up. Everything I thought I knew wasn’t true, my memories have been distorted by lies and manipulation. It feels like I’m drowning right now in all these emotions that I never got to feel in the moment,” I confide in Drayton, my heart beating a mile a minute. “I want to be a good man. I want to be the kind of man you are, that looks for the best in people and sorts the dark from the light. I want to be a person that Talia is proud of. Who I have been manipulated into being for the entirety of my life is not it. I’m so sorry, Drayton. I turned you into a villain for simply defending yourself. I believed so many awful things about you and I used them against you. I’m no better than they are.”

“You didn’t know,” Drayton starts, but I throw a hand up, cutting him off.

“The problem is that I should have known. All those memories you just brought up to prove that things were also better for you? Those should have been the same memories that I recalled inthose moments.” I shoot to my feet, pacing back and forth. “My mother planted so many lies in my head and I turned my back on you so easily because of it. I’m no better than they were. I hated you,for nothing. I wanted to hurt you because I’m just like them. What if all I know is darkness and anger? What if I’m not worthy of the light? I’m damn sure not worthy to be part of the mate bond, and I’m definitely not worthy of being your brother.”

Drayton stands up as well, grabbing my shoulders and holding me in place. “This, right here, is how I know you are nothing like them. Do you think they cared about anyone outside of themselves? Do you think your mother, our father, or even Marcus, gave any fucks if they were worthy of anything? No. Not once. In fact, they wholeheartedly thought they were worthy of taking whatever they wanted just because. You are not them and you never will be.”

Opening my mouth to argue, I shut it immediately when he flicks me in the forehead. Pulling back from his hand, I smack it away with a glare. The fuck is he doing?

“You deserved that. I saw you gearing up to argue,” Drayton chuckles, turning away from me and walking back towards the pack houses. “Come on, Forr. Our mate has probably paced a hole right into the ground at this point. She’s worried about you and so are the others.”

Running to catch up, I nod my head at him. “She healed parts of me I never thought I would see. I owe her a whole lot of gratitude and about a hundred more apologies for how I’ve acted since she got here.”

“You won’t hear me disagreeing with that. Talia is basically everything that’s good in one beautiful package and you hurt her pretty bad.” He looks over at me with a cocked eyebrow. “You better grovel on your fucking knees before her or all of us will kick your fucking ass.”

“Aye, aye, Captain.” I throw him a small salute, enjoying the banter between us again.

I’m not sure that we’ll ever have the kind of familial relationship that we lost. The scars will always be there and the damage has irreparably been done. However, I do have hope that we’ll build towards something stronger than what we lost. Afterall, we’re bond brothers now. There’s nothing stronger in this world than the bonds we have to our mate, and that extends to bond brothers as well.

Chapter Thirty

Talia

“Walk me through that one more time,” I ask Wes, shaking the thoughts of Forrester from my head for the hundredth time. “I’m so sorry. I am trying to listen, I promise.”

I force my eyes to look at Wes and not in the direction of the back door. Forrester is fine, Drayton is with him, and by the look in Wes’s eyes, I really need to be paying attention to what he’s saying.

“It’s okay, I know you’re worried about Forr. He’ll be fine, though. With Marcus locked up and the other packs coming to visit, I need to go over a couple security measures with you.There’s also something else we need to discuss as a group when Drayton and Forrester get back.”

"You’re right,” I say, turning to Wes with a smile. “You were saying that I need to stay with at least one of you while the other packs are present, right?”

“Correct. Good to know you were listening a bit.” Wes brushes my hair over my shoulder and winks. “We want to believe all the packs coming won’t harm you, but none of us are willing to take that risk. You must be in sight of one of us, or directly with one of us. No exceptions, Tal.”

“While that sounds like quite the hardship, I think I can manage it,” I assure him with a laugh. “What were you saying about the perimeter though?”

“The team you met with Alaric the other day will be heading the patrols for the perimeter and keeping an eye on the teams below them in rank to make sure that nothing like the attack can happen while our lands are full of other shifters.”

“Okay, that makes sense. Do we think any of the packs are going to try anything while here?” I ask, twirling my hair and resisting the urge to look towards the back door.

Drayton and Forr walk through the back door, interrupting whatever it was that Wes was about to tell me. I jump to my feet, rushing over to the two of them with my heart in my throat. Forrester is the first to pull me into his arms, crushing me against his chest.

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