Page 60 of Lost and Bound
Oh, fucking—that condescending little prick.
“Can you go fourteen days without getting railed by my big cousin?” I snarled.
He went as red as the flowers on his strange, probably poisonous plant. “We’re not talking about me!”
“Yeah, okay, so you’d rather talk about your brother’s sex life? What the fuck is wrong with you, Arik?”
“Nothing’s wrong with me,” he snarled back, baring his teeth. “I’m happily mated and fucking staying that way. So of course I don’t want to be separated from him. What’syourproblem, Jared? Make up your fucking mind what you want, but leave me the fuck out of it!”
And with that, he stomped off toward the house, more heavily than someone that slim should’ve been able to. No one did angry storming-off like a cat in combat boots, it turned out.
I stared after him, still not able to get a full breath, still furious, but also…cold again. Alone again.
I had my whole pack. I didn’t need to feel like that. Shit, I even had Arik, despite our spat just now, because he was my pack too.
Calder had gone without a word. He’d snuck out and left me.
He had ‘something he needed to do.’ Something completely non-specific that happened to include ditching me as quickly as possible after actually opening up to me for once. Treating me like a real mate, and not a fellow escaped prisoner turned hole for him to fuck whenever he wanted.
I sat down, right there in the muddy earth in the shadow of the climbing peas, because my legs didn’t want to hold me anymore and I didn’t care, and I was just fuckingdone. Calder hadn’t treated me like a hole, and trying to stoke my own hurt and rage by pretending he had didn’t help anything.
Truthfully, I’d never felt so cherished by any other person in my whole life. He’d treated me like—something so precious I didn’t even have a comparison for it. Never like just a sex object, not even that first time in the cell. Even then, he’d shown care for me.
But he’d told Arik we wanted to break the bond.
And then he’d left.
Which meant all that care, the kisses and the strong arms around me at night when I woke panting and afraid…it was all a lie.
He’d been humoring me all along.
Go to sleep, baby.
I dropped my face into my hands and groaned. The faster I went to sleep, the faster he could sneak out and leave me.
You seriously can’t go fourteen days without getting railed by my big brother?
Fuck that. Of course I could. I lifted my head, wiping the moisture off my cheeks with my thumbs. Stupid damp weather, leaving condensation everywhere. Yeah, the sun was out right now, but it might start raining again.
Whatever. I didn’t need Calder any more than Arik apparently did.
He could go do whatever he wanted to do.
I didn’t need him.
***
“You’re doing what?” Ian demanded, looking at me like I’d sprouted a second head.
“Going to Lancaster,” I said, going for casual. Instead, I sounded grouchy and tired and defensive. To be fair, Lancaster sucked, and it was totally overrun by vampires.
“Lancaster,” Ian repeated, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall of the garage like he meant to be there a while. “Because you want to go get a drink. Dude, there are bars in Laceyville. You know, home turf. No vampires hanging around sneering and talking under their blood-breath about mange and kibble.”
“I thought we were getting along with the vamps these days.” Working on Jennifer’s fence with her, I’d gotten the low-down on all the local gossip and the pack’s more big-picture relations with our nearest neighbors. She was the best councilmember to pump for info, and always had been. Smart, no-nonsense, and willing to tell anyone what she thought it was important for them to know. “Fenwick’s our ally, right?”
“I guess,” Ian said. “I mean, he’s all right for a vampire. But that doesn’t mean you need to go all the way to Lancaster.”
Yeah, except that I did, because I specifically didn’t want any of the pack around watching me.
