Page 25 of Brutal Alpha

“You’re twisting my words, Julia. I didn’t say I regret saving you, only that I…”

I wanted him to say it. I wanted him to say that he regretted ever touching me. If he could say that, then perhaps hewas right, perhaps we weren’t mates after all, perhaps I was still just a hopeless little girl, infatuated with her big brother’s best friend.

“You what?” I pressed.

“Drink your potion.”

“No. I want you to look me in the eye and tell me the truth.”

When Ethan met my gaze again, his expression was careful and blank. His voice was even and detached and far, far worse than his anger.

“I regret that my action led you to walk into danger,” he said. “I came after you because Caleb is my best friend, and he left you in my care. He loves you, and I couldn’t have lived with myself if I let you get hurt on my watch.”

It was as if a shutter had rolled down between us. There was nothing more to say.

“Right,” I choked, wrung out and hollow. “Of course.”

He nodded to the bottle, open and forgotten on my nightstand.

“Drink it.”

“Yes, Sir.” It barely even sounded sarcastic, and the corners of his mouth twitched down.

“I’ll go see about breakfast.”

He turned abruptly, and he was gone in the blink of an eye. There was no slamming door, no heavy footsteps outside to give away the thunderstorm of an argument that we’d brought down between us. The empty chair at the end of my bed, still rumpled from his occupancy, no doubt still warm, taunted me.Every moment of tenderness, every apparent act of care, was all a simple matter of duty to him.

The bottle on my nightstand beckoned, and when I reached for it again, my hand was steady. I knocked the potion back in one quick swallow, its bitter flavor lingering on my tongue.

Chapter 12 - Ethan

“And she’s lucid? No memory loss or anything?”

Caleb’s voice was fuzzy through the radio, but I could still hear the worry in it. After a lot of convincing, he’d agreed to stay put on Lapine until I could get Julia back to him. Leo had extra patrols on all his bridges, and I doubted Arbor would have the resources for another full-scale island attack. We were safe for now.

“She doesn’t remember getting to Arbor after the fight, but she was barely conscious for that, so I don’t think it’s too worrying,” I assured him. I should have been able to tell him more; I should have taken more time to ascertain how Julia was feeling before we got into another fight. I supposed it was a good sign: if she hadn’t had the energy to fight me, I would have been worried.

“You’ll radio if anything changes?” he pressed.

“Of course.”

“Okay.”

“Okay,” I echoed. I was reaching for the switch on the radio, ready to cut communication, but then he spoke again.

“Ethan?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you.” His voice was low and earnest, and I didn’t deserve it. I had not, of course, told Caleb why Julia was on her own at the bridge between Ferris and Lapine. I had not told him that rescuing Julia necessitated marrying her. I had told him the bare minimum: that Julia had wandered off alone, that she’d been kidnapped, and that I’d rescued her, but we’d run intotrouble at the Argent bridge. If Caleb knew the whole truth, he wouldn’t be thanking me.

“You’d do the same for me,” I muttered.

The radio clicked off at Caleb’s end, and I let out a long, relieved breath. I didn’t like lying to him, even by omission, but it was for the best.

“You ever gonna tell him?” Leo’s voice made me jump. I hadn’t heard him approach, and his shit-eating grin told me that had been the intention.

“It wasn’t a real marriage,” I reminded him. “It doesn’t mean anything, and it’s not relevant.”

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