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Tommy

The hit came so fast from my uncle that I wasn’t ready for it. He’d done his normal act of politeness, but on the phone he’d acted like he needed my help with something.

Not that I was in trouble.

I blocked the next slap out of instinct which pissed Uncle Justin off even more. I held my hands up in surrender and backed away. “I don’t know what is going on, but there’s been a misunderstanding.”

He snorted. “So you weren’t suspended from ASH without pay and your department head isn’t trying to get rid of you?”

I swallowed loudly. “I’m handling it.”

“No, you’re done doing anything . Because Ellie Reed was here today with Alpha Clark’s youngest son and I was fucking humiliated because of you!

What is wrong with you? I knew you were a cad just like my stupid brother, but—what is wrong with you?

Weren’t you hurt enough by your father’s promiscuous ways? Now you’ve become worse than him?”

“It’s not like that, Uncle,” I defended, backing away when he stormed down on me.

“She has proof you’ve been stalking her, Tommy!” He nodded when I froze. “That trick you pulled with her car so you could be the hero? You already did that to her!” He slapped me again when I winced.

“No, no, it…” I groaned. Yes, I had. That was how I originally got into her bed.

“Yeah, she showed me how you mocked her that she never figured it out like an asshole. And then you did it again.” He plowed on when I tried to argue.

“They have the video surveillance, Tommy! You took out the one camera, but they have others in that parking garage. They show you going into the garage, then poof , the camera fails. And her car doesn’t start.

“Plus, whatever you did the next day that she didn’t want to talk about in front of the well-connected and seriously powerful Alpha wolf.

She kept shooting him glances like he might explode if he learned what was really going on.

So what did you do to her yesterday that pushed her into coming to see me? ”

I swallowed loudly again. “That was bad. I admit it. I—she’s being too unreasonable. She can’t just leave me because—”

“You sound just like your father!” Uncle Justin roared. “Any woman can leave anytime they want, you piece of shit.” He backhanded me when I opened my mouth. “Oh, the sky is blue today? She can leave you! You wore ugly socks that embarrassed her? She. Can. Leave. You. Fucker!”

“I know that, but she’s just—”

“There is no but , Tommy! I would have killed you .” He nodded when I froze.

“If a guy was doing half of what I even know about to your cousins, I would kill you. That’s someone’s daughter , asshole!

She was scared of this escalating and whatever you said to her.

She can take you as a vamp. We both know that, but you’ve abused that woman to the point she is scared of you!

“She’s not playing hard to get or games.

She’s not punishing you for fucking the entire hospital—even the mated people, you pig.

No, she wants out. You crossed too many lines, and she very clearly never wants to see you ever again.

It was all in her aura, but instead of calling the police and firing your ass, she came to me to try and de-escalate this.

“So she’s amazing and you’re the asshole.

I got miffed how it was brought to me, but then I looked into what was going on and everyone knows that you’re harassing her and disgusted with your behavior.

And it was kept from me. All of this has been spinning out and looks bad on the coven—thank fuck people don’t know we’re actually related. ”

I flinched. That was his one rule for me to join the coven and move to Atlanta to accept the job at ASH.

He didn’t want people knowing we were related.

He’d taken his mate’s name to get away from our family and issues—namely my dad and grandfather—and he didn’t want anyone to know he was actually a Fitz.

Dad made it sound like Uncle Justin was a whiney baby, but I knew it was more than that. Plus, Dad was jealous that Uncle Justin was more powerful.

He was dripping with jealousy after Uncle Justin worked his way up to becoming a coven leader.

But Uncle Justin had always felt bad for me, and that was the button I’d pushed to get what I wanted.

“This ends, Tommy,” Uncle Justin growled. “You leave her alone.”

I nodded, appeasing him and trying to figure out how to get myself out of this mess with him. I didn’t see the punch coming. It was full strength, and I ended up on the floor with my nose gushing blood.

“Don’t pay lip service to me, you little asshole,” Uncle Justin seethed from above me, my death in his gaze which made me hesitate.

“You are out of control, Tommy. This is 100% you and I’m disgusted .

I’m pissed that I let you into this coven and Atlanta and it led to this.

” He squatted down in front of me and lowered his voice.

Which was when Uncle Justin was truly scary. He had a temper and yelled a lot, but the fact he was hitting meant that he was mad.

Talking quietly meant someone would die.

And I was pretty sure it would be me if I didn’t act carefully.

“No one is on your side of this, Tommy,” he told me.

“I’ve talked to dozens of people tonight already.

I have meetings with more. Everyone was all too eager to tell me exactly what’s going on including the other dog of ASH.

” He nodded when I blinked at him. “Hastings told me in depth what he’d heard come out of your vile mouth.

“And then you tried to call that poor woman like shotgun because she has money . It’s always about money with you assholes in this fucking family.

You are a trauma surgeon. You make great money!

Stop spending it on luxury brands and bullshit.

You don’t need a half-million-dollar car you only drive to the hospital and to fancy dinners on the weekends!

“She gave you one rule—do not out that you were sleeping together. And what did you do? You made sure everyone knew when she kicked you to the curb to tarnish her and try and force her to be with you! I’m tempted to talk to the police and toss you in fucking jail, you psycho.”

“Whoa, whoa, I’ve not done anything illegal, Uncle.”

He stared at me like I’d grown another head. “ Yes, you have! ” He punched me again. “Fucking with her car. Illegal. Stalking her condo and throwing a fit there. Illegal. Harassing her at work? Yeah, illegal , dipshit!”

“It’s not—I can—you don’t understand,” I argued.

He sighed and lowered himself to one knee. “You love her and are spiraling. I would almost feel bad for you if didn’t fuck the whole hospital while…” He blinked at me and looked all around me. Disgust and rage filled his eyes. “There’s no love in your aura, Tommy.”

“I do have feelings for her—of course I do after all these years of being intimate with—”

“You are just as delusional as your father,” he sighed.

“It’s all in your aura, Tommy. You’re acting like a psychopath.

” He shook his head. “It’s full of greed and revenge.

You’re pissed she dumped you. Are you fifteen?

That’s what this is all about?” He raised his hand to slap me when I opened my mouth.

“Enough with the bullshit! Stop lying and seriously think!”

I did. I stopped and thought about it and how I felt about Ellie. “She was supposed to be my happy ending. I saw us mated and stable.”

“Then you should have taken better care of her. Both of them are clear you abused her.”

Anger filled me, tired of hearing that. “I never fucking touched her. I’ve never struck a woman in my life and I would—she has to stop saying that shit!”

“I didn’t say you physically abused her.

She didn’t either.” He hit me with the heel of his hand on my forehead.

“You emotionally abused that woman, Tommy! You did.” He let out a slow breath and stood, moving away from me as if worried he might hit me again.

“Fucking with her car and then laughing at her that she didn’t catch on?

“I saw the texts. You were mocking her that she was dense, and—I don’t know why she stayed that long with you even if causal.

You don’t even sound like you like her the way you talked to her.

She was clear that you’d constantly put her down even if you did it with kisses.

You broke her down so her self-esteem might be shit enough to want a loser like you. ”

Anger filled me and I pushed to my feet.

But the rage in his eyes made me hesitate.

“If you can tell me one person on your side about any of this, I will apologize.” He snorted.

“You can’t. You are wrong in all of this, Tommy.

This—you had a lot of promise, boy, but you have become a loser.

People are laughing all over ASH and Atlanta at you. It stops.”

“Fine, I’ll leave her alone and accept we’re done,” I mumbled, my brain racing even as I used magic to heal myself.

“Oh no, we’re beyond that,” Uncle Justin chuckled darkly. “And you apparently cannot control yourself. You’ve become your narcissist father and everyone else is always to blame. It’s always everyone else’s fault. You’re a loser now just like him.”

I opened my mouth to defend myself but then slowly closed it. I blinked at him.

He studied me a moment. “What did you just realize? Your aura flashed fear and now you’ve gone pale.”

“I don’t…”

“I suggest you tell me because I’m still deciding what to do with you, Thomas Fitz,” he warned.

“I was going to blame her,” I whispered. “That if she hadn’t let everything get so bad and instead helped me, none of this would have happened.”

“So it’s her fault because she didn’t clean up your mess, not yours for making one?” Uncle Justin snorted. “Who does that sound like, Tommy? Who have you heard that from exactly when talking about your mother even?”

My father.