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TAYTE
It was four o’clock in the morning when Celeste woke up. A single day had passed since that nightmare of her falling down the cliff.
Sam still wouldn’t talk to me and Dane moped around like a puppy with a broken tail.
Our family was falling apart, and somehow, I knew it was all my fault.
Then the door to her hospital room flew open and an angry doctor came at us.
“What the hell is she talking about?” Claire hissed at us.
Oh, fuck.
My fears had come true and poor Celeste had remembered immediately why she’d run from us.
I sighed. “It’s my fault, Claire. Ask Dexter about it, he was there. He’ll explain everything.”
Claire narrowed her eyes and poked me in the chest with her pointed finger.
“You are going to tell me right now what the hell is going on. What was that girl doing at the bottom of a cliff in the middle of the night?”
Claire was practically panting, she was so angry.
I let my shoulders drop, the weight of my guilt too heavy to bear.
“When Grayson, Dexter and I met with the bears, they told us an attack was imminent, and from what Celeste had told me about their numbers, I knew that much of our town would die if it came to war. So, I asked them for a treaty, a way to buy us some time to work out a full solution.”
Claire put her hands on her hips. “Okay. So, what did you offer them?”
I glanced over at Dane, who met my look and then grimaced.
I turned back to the doctor who’d saved my child’s life.
“They wanted Celeste, so they could carry out the death sentence they’d imposed on her six months ago.”
Her mouth dropped open. “You didn’t say yes?”
I ran a hand through my hair and tugged at my shirt.
“I had no choice. It was the only thing I could say to put them off attacking. I told them to give me a month, until the baby was born, and then I’d send her back to them.”
Claire glared at me with the fury of a thousand suns. “Tell me you’re joking.”
Why didn’t anyone understand that I’d been lying through my teeth? As if I’d ever give up my mate. The one person who completed me.
“I would never have done it, ever. You weren’t there, ask Dexter. I was in an impossible situation, so I lied. It was just to buy us some time, so we could come up with a plan.”
Claire rolled her eyes in a dramatic fashion.
“Oh. My. God. Please tell me she didn’t hear you lying to the bears.”
Dane nodded. “She did, we think. Because she snuck out in the middle of the night and ran off. Nothing else makes sense.”
Claire sighed. “She definitely heard you because she was just telling me that you’re going to send her back to the bears. Jeezuus... That poor girl.”
Claire slapped her palm against her forehead. “What a mess.”
My chest cracked open, pain pouring into my wounds like salt.
“I know. What do I do, Claire? How do I explain to her that I was never going to go through with it? That I was saying it to save the pack and give us time to come up with an alternative?”
I clenched my teeth against the wave of nausea that rolled through me.
I’d been sick to my stomach every single moment since this had happened.
Not only did I have to find a way to save my pack and the lives of those in our town, but my mate was hurt and no longer trusted me.
More than that, she thought I was actively involved in wanting to have her killed.
The walls were tumbling down around me and I didn’t know what to do.
“What should I do, Claire?”
“You need to explain, apologize and beg forgiveness.”
“I know. And I will. But I don’t want to upset her any further.”
Claire nodded, her phone beeping.
She pulled her cell out of her pocket then sighed. “I’m going to make a phone call, then come back. You three wait out here and I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
Claire walked off and began talking on her cell.
Sam and Dane sat in the plastic chairs in the hallway and I loitered around, doing laps on the linoleum.
When Claire came back, she had a grim look of determination on her face.
“Okay. Let’s go. Tayte, you’re with me.”
I followed Claire into the hospital room where my mate was talking to our baby through a little incubator box.
I hung by the doorway, ready for the attack.
Claire moved over to her patient. “Celeste, I just spoke to Dex about the other night to confirm what Tayte said about his conversation with the bears.”
Celeste pulled her arm out of the incubator and turned to me.
I inhaled sharply when I saw her face. Her anger sliced through my heart like claws through flesh.
“Get him out of here.”
I looked toward Claire, who took over.
“Celeste, you need to hear him out. Your whole future, and that of all the packs in the Woodlands depends on it.”
That seemed to give Celeste pause, because she drooped, her shoulders sagging as she crossed her arms over her chest.
“Fine. Talk.”
“I know you heard what I said to the bears about giving you up after the baby was born. But I would never do that.”
She glared at me, her face not changing a single bit.
“I don’t believe you.”
I laughed sadly. “Well, that’s ironic, because I was lying to them, not you. How could you think, after all the love we’ve shared over the past six months, that I’d ever abandon you?”
She looked away, but I could see the pain in her face.
I went down on my knees to beg.
“Sweetheart, look at me, please. I lied that night. Lied my ass off. You heard me tell them that you weren’t my mate, and you know that’s a lie. I had to buy us more time. You told me that they outnumber us two to one. My whole town will die if the bears attack as one force. I had to tell them something to give us enough time to mount a proper defence. I will never, ever give you up. Even if you and Sam and Dane vote to kick me out forever, I’ll sleep on the doorstep for the rest of my life. To make sure the three of you remain safe. The three of you... and the baby.”
She looked at me this time, her blue eyes as dark as granite.
“I know you want the baby... you don’t want me.”
I shook my head. “You’re right about one thing, and horribly wrong about the other. Of course, I want the baby. She’s ours, she’s yours. But I want you even more. How can I prove it to you?”
I stayed on my knees, hoping she’d see how truly sorry I was.
She sighed, but her arms didn’t uncross.
“I don’t think I’ll ever forgive you for what you said that night. I’ll never be able to let my guard down with you again. I’ll never believe you again when you say that you love me. It’s all just... broken. We can’t go back.”
Hot tears were in my eyes, then on my cheeks.
I dashed them away and looked at the floor.
“Um... okay. I understand.”
I got to my feet and backed up to the door.
“I’ll move my things out of the house, and you can come home with Sam and Dane. Neither of them forgives me either, so it’s probably best that you three stay together.”
I moved to walk away, and Celeste called out. “What did you mean, the pack was in danger?”
I turned back to face her. “The bears want blood. Mine, yours, they don’t care. They want our pack extinct, gone. So, we either need to change their minds, or we need to fight them.”
“Oh, so I was going to be a sacrifice for peace. How noble of you.”
Her tone was hard, unforgiving, and the darkness of my guilt consumed me.
“You have it all wrong, sweetheart, as Dexter and Grayson can attest. I lied to the bears to give us a few weeks to plan. Nothing more. I’d rather die than ever see you hurt.”
She didn’t answer me, only turned back to face her baby once again.
There was only one way forward and that was to eliminate the bears once and for all.
“I love you, Celeste. With all my heart.”
She didn’t look my way again, but it didn’t matter. I was able to say the only words I wanted her to hear. Then I left.
I left the hospital, and I left my pack.
The bears wanted blood, so I’d give it to them.