Shatter ✔ #TheWattys2017

➸ 2. Sorry

Like his eyes.

I shook the thoughts out of my head. I wasn't going to let him have that hold over me, not today.

"Stop. Let's rest" Deacon's voice brought me out of my thoughts once more, I wondered if I was annoying him by not paying attention.

Since we had come from the docks in the woods, further down from the Pack House, we wound up behind a line of trees that crowded the shore, blocking the bright evening sun. We were obscured from the wolves' line of sight as the barbecue went on, Deacon and I just hanging out like we always did.

Looking up at Deacon, I felt a pain in my heart I couldn't describe, looking in eyes that were similar to his brother's. I didn't want to talk about anything to do with my 'mate' situation. Deacon, however, wanted to talk about it, I knew he would.

"Nova. Say something." He urged.

"Something," I whispered, dipping my hand in the water, avoiding his gaze.

He chuckled, dipping his own hand in the water and flicking it up, splashing me with its warmth.

"Hey!" I narrowed my eyes at him.

A smirk played at his lips before cracking into a full-blown grin, flashing his brilliant white teeth.

"Hay is for horses." His smirk was still there.

Sighing, I flicked him with water. "I know what you're doing."

He shrugged. "Is it working?"

I shook my head, looking out at my reflection over the side of the canoe. If 'tragedy' had a picture beside it in the dictionary, it would be of me.

"Nova... Have you talked to him? Has he told you if he was going to mark her or not?"

Lifting my gaze to his, I frowned. "No. What would it matter? I'm sure he will. She's having his pup. Your brother is a gentleman, unfortunately." I grumbled the last, pouting over the fact that my mate was too busy worrying about doing the 'right thing' rather than doing right by me.

I willed myself not to cry. He was such a good wolf to stay by her side because of his mistake and it killed me that he had to go and do the right thing by this she-wolf. He wouldn't let her be without honor...

But he'd let me be humiliated. It was too late to go back on his word to her now, she was already here.

"Nova. What exactly did you and my brother talk about the night he came home? What did he say?" Deacon leaned forward, taking my hands in his, probing for answers with sincerity in those blue eyes.

I remembered that night well, it haunted my dreams. The day a wolf finds their mate is supposed to be magical, but this night was one I wanted to forget.

It was the night of my shift-celebration. My seventeenth birthday had been last week and I had shifted successfully, my wolf making her appearance after hours of bones snapping and moving, realigning to fit my wolf. Alpha Blake had thrown a shift-party for me like he does with all newly shifted wolves, everyone in the pack was invited.

I was having so much fun with Deacon and my family at the party when Deacon's brother pulled up. He had just arrived home from his summer away at Blue Moon territory and the entire pack had wandered to the front yard to greet him, he's the Alpha's son after all, and Crescent Moon's future Alpha. I knew he was coming home that night because Luna Penelope had told me and I was feeling excited to see him and show him my wolf.

I had always had a crush on him. Deacon and I were joined at the hip, but his brother was the one that had always caught my eye, even at such a young age.