15. Giselle #3
“Maybe if I hadn’t left him behind, he wouldn’t have done what he’d done. Maybe if I’d tried to join him in the new pack… But I already felt like it was too late for me. I’d been gone for two years, and he’d had to take our father’s wrath all on his own. I shouldn’t have…”
He shook his head, and my mind automatically began to connect different pieces of the story.
“I ran away because I didn’t want to be like the rest of the family, but now I’ve stumbled right onto the path I was trying to get away from.
Gamblers. Cheats. Wife beaters. We weren’t good stock.
We hurt people just because we could. When my designation presented itself and we all found out I was an alpha, I realized that I needed to get away.
“My brother was a beta, so I thought he would be safer, and then Mom and him got adopted into another pack, so I was sure of it. But they got their hooks into him and drew him into this stupid, mostly alpha-roving pack and he actually—” his voice cracked, and I could see the whole picture clearly.
It was so incredibly sad how often hurt people hurt other people, but Charles had obviously pushed it to its limits.
“When I heard of what he did, I couldn’t believe it.
In fact, I was in denial for a long while.
I went nearly crazy trying to track down this so-called alpha who had killed him.
I was so certain he had somehow done my baby brother wrong. ”
“What changed your mind?” I asked.
“I got a visit at my hotel room from a woman.” Oh? “And by visit, I mean, she kicked my door down and hit me with a baseball bat that was coated in wolfsbane oil. Not exactly something you wanna experience while recovering from a silver wound.”
Okay, now I was confused. Who the hell could that be?
“She pinned me to the ground, and I thought she was going to kill me, but she told me about her sister and showed me all this proof. I had to face facts. My brother was a murderer, who continued the legacy of our bloodline.” He looked away for a long, long, long moment, but I gave him all the time he needed.
Because my heart was beginning to pick up speed—not like it had the other night—but just enough to ache for him.
Poor guy. I couldn’t imagine growing up in an abusive home and barely getting away, swearing to return and save the rest of your family, only to find they’d done that without you.
I couldn’t imagine the relief combined with the shame; the pride combined with the sense of failure. Such a potent combination.
And then living on his own for so long, taking solace in the fact that his little brother was doing okay, only to find out he was dead. Not just dead, but murdered.
God, the rage. The sheer, unadulterated fury I would have had in the same situation. I would have been blind with it, mad with it, and yeah, maybe I would have kidnapped an innocent woman in my desperate attempt for vengeance.
That didn’t mean I would completely forgive him, but I did understand him a lot more.
When he finally looked back at me, tears were streaming down his face.
Normally, I would admire someone who could cry without sounding like they were drowning in their own snot, but unfortunately, I’d worked with kids long enough to know that silently weeping was often a sign of an abusive background where they never had a safe place to cry.
“I’m sorry, ma’am, I am. I got lost in it.
I wish I could say her beatdown made me give up on this stupid, stupid vendetta of mine, but I was just so angry at everything that, like I said, I came here.
” More tears, but he never once blinked.
“God, I hate to say that I don’t know what I would have done if it weren’t for the kids.
I like to think that I would have realized I was being a moron and falling into everything I’d run away from, but I just don’t know. ”
Finally, true sobs broke from him. I was glad I was leaving school early for a teacher, but late for a parent to pick up a student, because otherwise he would be drawing quite a bit of attention to us.
And even though I was sure I would be able to explain the situation away, he deserved his privacy.
“I just don’t know.”
I couldn’t say what possessed me to step forward—this could still be a trick—but I extended my hand until it was resting on his shoulder.
“Let’s not worry about the ifs, ands, or buts,” I said softly, the same way I would comfort someone I knew in need.
“What’s important is that you’re here apologizing.
You’re making things right. And you gave me my bracelet back, which you could have destroyed.
I did take your eye out with it.” My gaze went to the thick patch and the angry, red veins. “Not permanently, I hope?”
Ben had made it seem like healing was much more expedient, and we were close to three whole days since the wound.
“No, probably not. Silver does a number on us. Body basically has to work out every single cell that was touched by it, because it’s completely dead.” He sniffed, wiped his nose with the back of his gloved hand, then straightened. “You’re real sick, aren’t you?”
I shrugged. “Yeah. But there are a lot of people who are a lot worse off. It’s not like it’s cancer or something.”
“I would have smelled if it was. I mean, you do smell off , but you’re right, not that bad.”
Exsqueeze me? I smelled off?
Oh my god, did Ben think I smelled off ?
This wasn’t the moment to fixate on us, especially when the subject was going to pop up in my head right as I went to bed. The ruminating could wait until then.
“Sorry, I probably didn’t word that the best. Never been the best speaker.
But now that everything’s settled…” He shook his head and finally pushed himself off my car, taking a few steps as he pulled out a set of keys.
“Gotta figure out what I’m gonna do with my life.
Ain’t a lot of options out there for a wolf with no pack.
You can tell Poynter he doesn’t have to worry about me anymore.
I’ve got my own shit to worry about. And if he wants to go after me because of what my brother did to him and what I did to you, I get it.
I’m a big boy. I can face the consequences of my own actions. ”
“I’ll tell him, but he’s not going to come after you. I know that much.”
“You know that, huh?” He sounded so wounded, so hurt, that I walked around to face him again.
Some would call me certified crazy for wanting to comfort a man who had turned my entire world inside out, but he was just another victim in a cycle of violence that Charles, Ben, and everyone involved had all been drawn into.
“Yes. I know. You fucked up, but it’s understandable. And if anyone understands pain making you do things you wouldn’t normally, it’s Ben.”
He narrowed his stormy eyes at me. “What are you, some sort of Qilin with a human glamour?”
“I don’t know what that is,” I answered, filing it away in my mind to look up later. “But no, I’m just a human. I promise.”
“Huh, must be one of the good ones. You’re kinder than you should be, lady.”
“Giselle. I’m sure you heard my students call me Miss Fischbacher, but you’re too old for that.”
“I suppose I am.” He offered his non-snotty hand. “Melton.”
“Melton?” I blurted.
Thankfully, the man laughed. “Yeah, on top of my dad being an abusive asshole, he also gave me a shit name.”
“Why don’t you change it?”
“What?”
“I mean, you owe nothing to your family, and if the name doesn’t serve you, why not change it?”
He blinked at me, long and slow with his tear-stained eye, and just shook his head. “You really are something else. No wonder Poynter has you.”
“He doesn’t have me. You interrupted our first date.”
“ First date ?” I knew it was such a little thing, but his horrified expression was pretty hilarious. “Man, have you got stories to tell if you make the distance.”
“Yeah, we definitely do.”
“You’re certifiable.”
“At this point? Probably.”
Never in a million years would I have expected to be bantering with the man who had kidnapped me. And the craziest thing was that I actually did forgive him.
“Well, hopefully I’ll never see you again, Giselle. I wish you well.”
“And I wish you well too, whoever you are.”
He huffed another tiny laugh, then walked off to a motorbike just a few spots away. Of course he had a motorbike. With one last little salute—and of course no helmet—he gunned his engine and took off, going faster than I appreciated for a school zone.
I watched until he was completely out of sight, then got in my car. I had a lot to process—more than could be done in a single day, or even a week.
But at the same time, I wanted to update Ben, so I pulled out my phone to make an important call.