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“This is why you don’t trust vampires.” Saylor’s hands lay passive, letting me caress them.

“Yes. Because it got worse.” I grab my hat from the floor beside me and pull it low over my eyes. “The girl didn’t care about the rumors. She twisted it in her head. She thought I started them myself for some weird reason. That I did it to stay undesirable to others, except her.” I pop a toothpick in my mouth, always going back to hold Saylor’s hand. “It was so fucked up. Christmasvacation was days away and I thought I would be able to get away from her. That everything would get better.”

“It didn’t,” she says softly.

“So much worse. My brothers were going skiing with friends. My dad wouldn’t let me go. He didn’t think an Alpha in training needed to go away. I stayed. My brothers left. I kept going to work. I stayed away from all my friends. I would see the girl outside my work, just watching. The notes didn’t stop. They were becoming more disturbing. Threatening. She thought I belonged to her.

“I would see the vampire, too. Out of the corner of my eye and then he would be gone. That is why I am so attuned to them. I trained myself to know what they feel like even though they don’t have a scent. I couldn’t get away from either of them. I lost sight of what his goal was.” I chew on the wood nervously. I don’t want to finish it. “One night, I decided to go out to party. I’d been ignoring everyone and I was tired of it. I wanted to relax. I wanted to be normal for one night.

“It was in the woods. Unfortunately, the vampire was there. I didn’t speak to him. I had a couple beers, tried to ignore him. I was talking to another shifter when the humans started screaming. They were running. Panicking. We went to see what was going on.

I pull my hat lower and concentrate on our hands, tracing the lines in her palm. “The girl was hanging from a tree. A rope around her neck. Dead.”

“Oh, Elijah,” Saylor whispers.

“There was a note pinned to her chest. ‘He made me do it.’I remember the exact words. My name wasn’t on it, but it didn’t matter. I saw the judgment in their eyes. The fear. I don’t know how I got home but when I did, I was met by my father. He heard, or someone told him. He knew everything. He believed it, and was furious. He couldn’t believe I would put the pack indanger. He told me to get out and never come back. He allowed me to pack my clothes and nothing else.”

“How could he?” Saylor asks, angrily.

“It was so fucking easy for him,” I growl.

“What about your mom?”

“She was so far under his control, she did nothing. She watched him do it.” She gasps. “I left and have never gone back to my dad’s house.”

“Your brothers?”

“I haven’t spoken to them since before they went on vacation. I threw the phone my dad bought for me away days after. I don’t know if they hate me too. I don’t know if they agreed with him. I went back to at least see them once, but they didn’t see me, and we never talked.” I clear my throat. “The kicker is I know the vampire had to have something to do with the hanging. She wouldn’t have been able to get the rope over the tree. There was no chair or stool under her. He had to have talked her into it.”

“Why? How could he hurt someone he claimed to love?”

“People do it all the time. But I think his thirst for vengeance was greater than his love for her. He knew my father and the kids at school would believe I did it. He trained them to believe the worst of me.”

“This is crazy,” she says.

I pull my hand away. “I told you. You would see me differently.”

“Not you,” she yells. My head whips her way and I push back my hat. “This asshole vampire could get away with fucking with your life. That your mother didn’t say,fuck you, my son is staying. That your fuck of a father didn’t say,I’m sorry you had to go through that.” She jumps from her chair, pacing. “Plus, your brothers didn’t spend their days searching for you. What the fuck? They should have fucking believed you. You shouldn’tfeel fucking ashamed of your experience.” She ends with her arms out wide.

“That’s a lot of fucks,” I say, smiling at my irate mate.

“Elijah, this is serious,” she admonishes. “What’s the vampire's name? You never said.”

“I want to forget it.” She stares at me. “Silas.”

“The girl?”

“Tiffany,” I say quietly.

“Well, this just makes me want to be with you more. What fuckers. They are not going to ruin this for us,” she says, firmly.

I watch her anger turn into resignation. I reach out quickly, yanking her into my lap, doing something I’ve been aching to do every minute I am with her.

Give her a hug.

Well, one of the things I always want to do to her.

Chapter Fourteen