Page 205 of Fangs
“Ember, are your wrists okay? Nemo said they might need stitches,” Wolf asked.
I stared at my hands and didn’t answer.
“I’m not sorry for trying to keep you safe, but I am sorry I tied you up.”
Sam let out an angry noise from between his teeth.
“C’mon, man, I’m trying here,” Wolf’s voice sounded tense.
“You’re gonna have to try a helluva lot harder,” Sam snapped.
“I was tryin’ to keep her safe,” Wolf’s voice rose. “She was threatening to follow us. Would you have wanted her there with the Voiceless?”
“No, but I never would’ve considered tyin’ her up!” Sam shot back.
“What the hell else was I supposed to do? I didn’t cinch ’em tight enough to hurt her. She would’ve been fine if she hadn’t freaked out! Why the fuck did you do that, Em?”
Before I could even consider answering him, Sam exploded. “Are you fucking serious? When we first found her in that safe, she’d been in there with her hands zip-tied fordays.She was fucking chained up in the clinic for over a week after Madame killed Trey! Chained! When we finally got her out eight days later, she was still wearing the same clothes stained in Trey’s blood. So you tell me why you think she might’ve fucking panicked about being tied up in there!”
Halfway through his rant, I glanced up at them, stunned horror at Sam’s tirade making me feel numb and weightless. Sam was glaring at Wolf, but Wolf’s eyes were closed, and one hand pinched the bridge of his nose. My shoulders rose and crept forward, trying to retreat into myself. I hated that his expression mademefeel guilty.
Wolf was quiet for a long time. “Em, I’m sorry,” he finally said.
“Ibeggedyou.” The words bubbled out of me, and I wanted to be angry, to scream at him, but instead, my voice came out thick with tears. I wished I could be more like Raven—fierce and strong. All I did was fucking cry lately, and I was so sick of it.
“I know,” my brother’s voice was steady, and mine was anything but, “I thought you were just trying to manipulate me.”
I let out a bitter laugh, furiously wiping away tears. “All I’ve done since you got here is tell you the fuckin’ truth, but you’re never gonna believe me, are you?”
“That’s not fair,” Wolf argued, “Intentionally not tellin’ me shit is the same as lyin’.”
“I only haven’t told you shit ’cause I fuckingcan’t!” My voice rose.
“What? You can’t justtalk?”Wolf crossed his arms.
He didn’t say it cruelly, but the questionhurt,and I immediately lashed out. “I dunno, canyou?Real convenient of you to forget about all those months whenyouwere too broken totalk.”
His mouth pressed into a flat line as his ears turned red, and I saw the same hurt I felt flash through his eyes, but it didn’t make me feel better.
“You know what? It doesn’t matter. How about we make this real easy and just never speak again.”
“Ember—”
I stood, strode into the bedroom, and slammed the door. I leaned against the door in the dark room, holding my breath as tears rolled down my face.
“For the record, I knew maybe an eighth of all this before you got here and even fewer details.” I heard Sam say, and I could tell his voice was still angry, even muffled through the door. “The only one of us who knew more was Trey, and it took over six months for him to be there for her before she could tell him what happened. I don’t think you realize how hurt she was when we found her. You’ve seen some of her scars, right?” There was a brief pause. “Well, the worst scars she has are ones you and I can’t see, but Juck put ’em there just as much as the brand on her chest. You demanding she tell you all this onyourtime is like demanding a man without legs move across a room. Sure, he can get down on the floor and drag himself across with his hands, but it’s gonna hurt, and it’s gonna be fuckin’ hard, not to mention humiliating. And how do you think he’s gonna feel if you don’t acknowledge any of that and instead just get annoyed at how long it took?”
Wolf said something that I missed, but Sam wasn’t done.
“You’re lookin’ at all the shit she’snotdoin’ ornottellin’ you and completely missing how fucking hard she’s working at what sheisdoin’ and tellin’ you. And lemme tell you, she’s workin’ fuckin’hard.You have to make a decision, man. Is she your sister who you want back in your life, or is she your prisoner who you’re turning in for a bounty? Cause she can’t be both, and you can’t keep going back and forth between the two. It’s not fair to her.”
His words felt like they smacked me upside the head. That was a big part of why I kept feeling so off balance with Wolf, wasn’t it? I could never tell if I was his sister or his prisoner. I wrapped my arms around myself and tried hard to keep my sobs quiet. I’d never heard anyone defend me like this until Mac stood up to Wolf and, now, Sam.
Mac had told me they knew me, and I believed it now.
“Alright,” Wolf finally said, his voice so low I almost couldn’t hear him. “I’m gonna head back to the clinic.” He paused. “If she doesn’t want to stay there for a while, I understand.”
Sam muttered something, and I heard Wolf walk to the door. As soon as I heard the front door shut, I opened the bedroom door, startling Sam, who had been reaching for the handle.
