Page 133 of Unforgivable

"He's why I'm so pissed, lately, too," Thjis replies as he readies the needle.

I feel my stomach flip over. "Shit. You're sewing him?" I manage to ask.

Thjis scowls at the deep cut he's readying to sew back together. "Yeah, Rhet. Fucking obviously. Shit, where's Carm? You're turning green."

"He's putting pants on," I say.

"I'm here," Carmichael drops next to Thjis, pants on. "I was listening. Fascinating conversation. Ezra always like that?" He puts his palms where Thjis shows him.

"Yeah." I look away from the male on the couch, closing my eyes. I keep talking to keep the image of the needle sawing through skin and flesh out of my head. "He's MateLess, but not stupid. Ezra was still a pup when we first came here. I remember how often I had to beat him down to keep him from doing something that would end up killing him at the hands of another wolf. He had to learn hard lessons to stay in line."

"Seems like he still has some hard lessons to learn."

"Shut the fuck up, Carm," I rasp. I won't let my cousin rag on my little brother. Ezra has enough shit to deal with.

"Just saying, he's in deep with your female. And you know who's going to have to control that shit?"

"Me?" I say sarcastically. He's not telling me anything I don't already know. I've kept Ezra breathing until now, haven't I?

"Your little female, pendejo. She's a luna. Recognize that shit. Let her be who she's meant to be."

---

Lyri

I doze on Ezra's chest while he strokes my short hair, my back. It's nice, listening to his steady heartbeat, feeling the rise and fall of his chest. He and I both ignore the wetness on his chest as I cry silent tears. I just need this moment. We both came so close to disaster. Everything was almost snatched away from us both. It's why I want to start training again.

I want to feel invincible. Call me a control-freak, but I want to know that my life is on its course. Straight and narrow, with no more divets and bends in the road.

"I had plans, you know," I mumble.

"For what, love?"

"If it didn't work, my dumb plan that night. I never thought about what would happen if we were caught that night."

"I don't think anyone could possibly predict what happened," Ezra murmurs.

"What were you going to do?" An unfamiliar voice asks from the door.

I glance over at Carmichael. "Ask the southern council for permission to join ranks and train as either a soldier or a Gamma if I passed the entry exams. I didn't want to try college. I wanted to stay busy and keep my she-wolf occupied."

He nods, arms crossed over his chest. "Why seduce Daan in the first place?"

Damn, he's blunt. I sit up, keeping contact with Ezra. "I had this idea in my head that it would break him and Cloe apart. I convinced myself that he needed to see what we were, without her in the way. It was really selfish of me," I end softly.

"Foolish sí," Carmichael muses, "but why selfish?"

"It was their decision, I guess. Now I know that you can be in love with someone other than your mate. Someones," I add with a small smile.

Carmichael shakes his head. "No, it's not selfish. They fucking lied to the pack they're supposed to lead. Your dumbass ex-mate decided to spurn the pack's future luna. What you did wasn't selfish, but it was foolish. What if you weren't caught? What did you expect him to do?"

I take a deep breath. "I was leaving the pack at the end of January. Two months, roughly, for him to wake up and see what he was giving up. I figured it was long enough. If he still chose her over me, I would leave and not come back."

"You were really leaving? You had a place in one of the units and everything?" Ezra sits up and wraps his arms back around me.

"I was going," I confirm. "I couldn't stay. My she-wolf wanted... wants... to eat Cloe alive. It was getting worse. There were days that all I could do was think about it. I would dream about her death."

"Yeah, but you're staying now. With us," Ezra says with forced casualness.

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