Chapter 32

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Chris sat on the counter in the corner of the kitchen farthest from me.

He’d probably be moody with me for the next couple of days, but I knew he wouldn’t leave me here alone…just in case Grayson decided to show himself.

I decided that I still wanted strawberry cheesecake cupcakes, so I kept my hands busy with that.

“So…” I said as casually as I could. I looked at him as the stand mixer did its thing. “Are you going to stay mad at me for not telling him?”

He sighed and looked over at me. He was thinking about his answer, which meant that he could still be too mad at me to make conversation.

“No.” He looked away from me again.

“Then why are you trying to ignore me?” It was awkward when Chris was mad at me. He was never mad at anyone. Knowing he was mad at me made it that much worse.

“I’m not trying to ignore you.” He muttered.

“Just don’t have anything to say to me?”

He sighed again before looking at me. “I know why you did what you did. It’s just hard for me to wrap my head around it.”

“Because you’re a werewolf.”

“It’s not just that.” He shook his head. “You kept this a secret from all of us. You took off on all of us. I know Connor was your real brother and that his death hit you hard, but it affected all of us. He was a brother to me too. Then you bailed without saying anything to anyone with the vampire that bit you.” The hurt in his voice brought tears to my eyes. I would love to blame it all on the pregnancy hormones, but I knew that wasn’t the case.

“It was like we lost our brother and our sister all in one blow.” I wiped away the tear mark left over from a tear falling from my eyes. “Come here.” He said gently.

I didn’t feel like I deserved to go near him since I hurt him so much. I didn’t know my absence would bother our original pack members so much.

Chris got off the counter when I wasn’t advancing on him quickly enough. He wrapped his arms around me and kissed my forehead. “I didn’t want to make you feel bad, or guilty. You just forgot that you’re not alone here. You still have a family that loves you.”

“I wasn’t trying to run away from you guys. You’re the only family I have left. I just…” I wiped my eyes with a huff. “I feel like a child.” I muttered sourly as I tried to completely dry my face.

Chris just smiled at me and wiped a spot that I missed.

I pulled myself together just in time, a few more seconds of all these emotions and I’d be a pool of tears at Chris’ feet.

“I just couldn’t be here when I knew that Grayson would just have that…” I couldn’t call the dead woman a whore anymore…it just didn’t feel right. “chick… here anymore. I could cope with everything and have their relationship shoved in my face.”

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