Chapter 10
CHAPTER 10
A shley
“This one used to be your favorite,” Emery says cheerfully, holding up a bright pink short-sleeve top with floral print.
After a week in the hospital, my sister and her mate brought me to New Mexico where the Nightwolf pack resides. We got in late last night, so I haven’t met many of the other pack members yet.
Even after spending the night with Emery in their spare bedroom, I wasn’t quite ready to go out to meet everyone for breakfast this morning.
All I want is to see Christophe.
“Thanks,” I mumble, taking the shirt from her and then glancing around the room. “Do you have a pair of black pants in there?” I half-heartedly point at the closet where my sister apparently kept a few of my clothes that she was able to save from our adoptive parents’ home.
I don’t miss Emery’s frown before she turns to rummage around in the wooden closet. “You didn’t have a lot of plain black clothes,” she reminds me.
Yeah, that was my style. Or my ‘non-style’ as I used to call it. I liked to rebel against my adopted mother’s classy expectations by wearing clothes that completely contradicted one another.
The urge to push back against a woman who doesn’t even exist anymore seems pointless.
“Do you have a pair of blue jeans, then?” I ask.
Emery gives me a funny look but then nods. “Let me check my room.”
A minute later, she’s back in the room, handing me a pair of dark blue jeans to wear for the day.
“I suppose we’ll have to go shopping for more things. How about we go?—”
“Where is he?” I ask Emery. “Christophe,” I add just in case there’s any confusion as to who I’m talking about. “It’s been days since that day in the hospital. Is he here in New Mexico?”
Her mouth falls open as her gaze drops to the floor. I know right away whatever she is about to say is a lie.
“Tell me, Em. Where is he? Why didn’t they bring him here? He’s their brother.”
“Ashley,” she sighs out my name, “it’s complicated.”
“So you’ve been telling me.”
I hate that I’m starting to feel like the teenage girl that everyone’s keeping a secret from.
“He’s my mate,” I remind her. “I deserve to know what’s going on with him.”
Emery shakes her head. “He can’t be your mate,” she replies.
I blink at the conviction in her voice.
She moves closer and takes my hands in hers. When I try to pull them away, she tightens her hold.
“Ashley, Christophe isn’t who you think he is. He’s not … he’s not a good person.”
“Stop it. Why are you saying that?” I twist my wrists to break free, but she holds firm.
“There’s a lot you don’t know about him. H–He’s not like you. He’s not innocent.”
I shake my head to dislodge her words from my memory. I don’t know what would make her say such horrible things about my mate, but I refuse to listen to it.
“No.” I manage to yank my hands out of her grip and storm toward the door. “I’m going to find him.”
“Ashley, wait.” Emery charges in front of me, slapping her hands against the door frame, stopping me from exiting.
“I can’t let you see him.”
I narrow my eyes on her. “Wait, so he is here, then.” She all but confirmed he’s nearby. My wolf purrs in my chest, making me rub my hand against my skin in a soothing manner. We’re both desperate to reconnect with him.
“Is he hurt? Is that why?—”
“He deceived his pack,” Emery blurts out. “He nearly killed them all.”
I rear back on my heels, nearly stumbling. When Emery reaches for me, to stop my fall, I wave her hands away.
“Why would you say such a lie? Christophe is?—”
“A traitor,” she cuts me off.
I want to cover my ears against the nonsense she’s spouting. For a beat, I start to suspect that maybe, just maybe, what my captors tried to convince me about Emery was right all along. Was she trying to intentionally hurt me?
“Ashley, listen to me,” she implores. “Christophe, unlike you, was sentenced to a lifetime of imprisonment for his wrongdoings. He belonged in the?—”
“No!” I roar. “No one deserved what we went through in that place.”
Holding up her hands in a surrendering fashion, Emery nods. “You’re right. What you all went through wasn’t the intentions or expectations of a shifter prison. You should’ve never been in that place,” she says, stepping forward.
“No one should’ve been in that place.”
It wasn’t adequate for infected rats let alone shifters.
“No, he didn’t deserve that,” she agrees, but frowns. “But you don’t know the whole truth of what happened. You don’t know who he truly is.
“I know he helped you in there?—”
“Helped?” I ask with a mocking snicker. “He did a hell of a lot more than help me. He’s the only reason I’m still alive.”
“Ashley, I know you think that, but him talking to you through a wall to keep your spirits up, while helpful isn’t the same thing as keeping you alive.”
“Emery, stop!” I yell, not meaning to, but I can’t listen to her downplay what Christophe means to me any longer.
“He did more than talk to me through a wall , as you put it. He threw himself into danger for me. I lost count of how many times the guards came for me, and he turned their attention onto him. He—” I gasp and cover my mouth.
That was it.
That’s why they did it.
Christophe saved me so many times that the sick freaks who took us must’ve picked up on our connection. And they used that to turn him against me, or more accurately, use me against him.
My very face brings him pain.
My vision blurs as this reminder pierces my thoughts.
“Ashley.” Emery approaches, taking one of my hands into hers. “You say he’s your mate, but you’re still so new to being a shifter at all. You two can’t even … there’s no future for you with him.”
My heart shreds at her words.
“I’m not listening to you anymore. I need to go to him. To see him.” I move to storm past her, out of the bedroom, but she clutches onto my hand again.
“Ashley, you know I’m not saying this to be mean. But … he can’t even look at you without being in immense pain. Is that what you want for him?”